Book > r - 

CDEOUGier DEFOSU& 



THE 

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS 



THE 

New Life in Christ Jesus 



Essays on Subjects relating to Spiritual Life 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

LISTENING TO JESUS 

AND 

THE LAW OF LOVE 

Edited by Julian Field 

With an Introduciton by the Very Reverend 
F. W. FARRAR D.D., Dean of Canterbury. 



" The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are 
■^ife." — John vi. 63. 



NEW YORK 



I DEC 11 



ia<INTED PRIVATELY 

[All rights reserved.] ' ' 



1S96 



TO 

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS 

THE PRINCESS HENRY OF BATTENBERG 

THESE PAGES ARE 
BY HER GRACIOUS PERMISSION 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 






PAGE 


I. 


THE 


DIVINE UNION 


I 


II. 


THE 


DIVINE TEACHER 


26 


III. 


THE 


SECRET VOICE 


35 


IV. 


THE 


TRUE WISDOM 


41 


V. 


THE 


DIVINE LIGHT 




VI. 


THE 


LOVE OF GOD 


ss 


VII. 


THE 


BREAD OF LIFE 


61 


VIII. 


THE 


NECESSITY OF REDEMPTION 


66 


IX. 


THE 


TWO LIVES ... 


74 


X. 


THE 


SPIRIT OF GRACE ... 


81 


XI. 


THE 


LIFE OF FAITH 


91 


XII. 


THE 


OWNERS OF HEAVEN 


95 


XIII. 


THE 


TRUE RELIGION 


lOI 


XIV. 


THE 


SEALED BOOK 


1 26 


XV. 


THE 


DIVINE JUSTICE 


136 


XVI. 


THE 


WILL OF GOD 


147 


XVII. 


A DANGEROUS PASSAGE ... 


161 


XVIII. 


MIRACLES 


173 



viii 



Contents 



LISTENING TO JESUS 

PAGE 

A LETTER ... ... ... ... ... 1 79 

THE LAW OF LOVE 

SUNDAY ... ... ... ... ... 205 

MONDAY ... ... ... ... ... 210 

TUESDAY ... ... ... ... ... 215 

WEDNESDAY ... ... ... ... 224 

THURSDAY... ... ... ... ... 228 

FRIDAY ... ... ... ... ... 233 

SATURDAY ... ... ... ... ... 237 



PREFATORY NOTE 



The author of this httle volume was of noble 
birth, a Frenchman and a Protestant. He was 
carried when a child by his mother to Geneva 
after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
The head of the family was at one time French 
Envoy in Switzerland. He, the eldest brother, 
to save the estate continued to reside in France 
and pretended to be a Catholic, while the 
Dowager Countess and her second son, the 
Viscount — our author — remained in exile. At 
the age of sixteen our author went into the 
army : and while he was in Flanders some 
pious book having fallen into his hands, he 
became disgusted with the army life ; and 
though the importunity of his friends hindered 
him during four or five years from quitting it, 
yet at last his desire of solitude, and employing 
himself to the best purposes without distraction, 



X Prefatory Note 

made him withdraw with another officer of the 
same regiment, and the Chaplain : they ah three 
retiring to an obscure place in Germany, where 
they gained their bread by the labour of their 
hands in some one of the common occupations 
of the country. There happened to be in that 
neighbourhood a young gentlewoman of quality 
by birth, but who from a spirit of piety and dis- 
relish of the frivolities of the world had left her 
relations and passed her time in obscurity and 
retirement. From the similarity of their charac- 
ters and pursuits our author and this lady con- 
tracted the most intimate habits of friendship : 
and lest the difference of sex might be a matter 
of scandal they agreed to marry under a mutual 
engagement to continence, in which state they 
always lived. The author and his wife dwelt 
for some time in a cottage with a poor widow, 
but a little distant from their former habitation, 
and by manual labour they supported her and 
themselves. The eminent virtue and piety of 
the author, notwithstanding his endeavours to 
lead a common course of life in appearance, 
drew several seriously-disposed persons to con- 
sult him, and they received great light and aid 
from him ; many that came to him partly from 
curiosity becoming truly converted, so powerful 



Prefatory Xote xi 

was the influence of the Holy Spirit working 
through him. The first thing he wrote that was 
published is the Letter to his Sister (p. i8i) 
dated May 14, 1735. As that letter produced 
in her a thorough conversion she was desirous 
to see him, and he travelled on foot to Geneva 
for that purpose. During his stay there he 
acquired knowledge in watch-making, and prac- 
tised it for his own maintenance and in order to 
help his indigent neighbours. His ability in 
this trade brought him in contact with the chief 
of a certain princely house of Germany. Our 
author converted His Highness, his wife, and 
several great families allied to them, and having 
abandoned the world they all retired to the 

Castle of H — , where they led a primitive 

and evangelical life, to the great edification of 
the many who sought their society and spiritual 
help. Of this association our author and his 
wife were looked upon as the spiritual parents. 
His life from the time of his conversion to his 
death is reported to have been that of a true 
and practical follower of Christ, of a man full 
of the Holy Spirit. The present book, which 
was published anonymously and in parts in 
Germany during 173S, 1739, 1740, although it 
had an immediate and immense influence for 



xii 



Prefatory Note 



good, was always rare (de Saint Martin, writing 
to his friend Kirchberger, Baron de Liebestorf, 
under date " M, 25 prairial — 14 Juin, 1794, 
vieux style" — calls these discourses ^'extreme- 
ment rares and during this century the work 
has become almost impossible to find. Hence 
this reprint, which I have edited and revised. 

The pure Love of God (a doctrine which has 
been strongly asserted from the time of vSt. 
Katherine of Genoa and by others before her 
down to the present day, but not always without 
causing considerable vexation to its supporters, 
as in the case of Fenelon) : Union with God 
complete and absolute : Transformation into 
His likeness (which presupposes the extirpation 
of self-love, or the self principle, the root of 
all human misery, for ^' if there were no self-will 
there would neither be Hell nor Devil," says 
our author), that we may love God as He loves 
us — that is, so far as is competent to finite 
natures : in other words, a complete new Birth 
and new Life, — that is the basis of our author's 
spiritual teaching. 

He preaches the ''annihilation" — a term 
used by the mystics and ridiculed by their 
adversaries, though supported by that expression 



Prefatory Note 



xiii 



of St. Paul — Philipp. ii. 7, when he says of 
our Lord that He "emptied Himself" (Revised 
Version), cKeVwcre exinanivit," Vulg.) — the 
'^annihilation" of Self in order that Jesus may 
reign alone in our hearts. He endeavours to 
show that what is called the wrath or anger 
of God is properly His Love acting upon the 
corruption of nature to accompHsh its purifica- 
tion, since infinite Love can do no hurt. He 
strikes with unwearied persistence the one 
grand keynote of all true Christian life, namely, 
that the whole essence of practical Christianity, 
concerning which acres of ponderous tomes 
have been written, is to be summed up in four 
words — Be always with Jesus : soul and spirit, 
heart and mind for ever with Jesus ; such cease- 
less intercourse with the Saviour constituting 
the Divine Life which, beginning here, knows no 
ending ; the peace and joy of which cannot be 
marred or even reached by any of the woes of 
this world, since this Life is hidden in Christ, and 
saturated with the divine, consoling truth that 
God is Love, — infinite, eternal Love; and, to 
quote the simple words of one who lives Christ : 
"Love's purposes lie behind every disappoint- 
ment, every bereavement, every pain : and those 



xiv 



Prefatory Note 



who have set themselves to find out these, tell 
us that — 

' Only Heaven is better than to walk 
With Christ at midnight over moonless seas.' " 

J- F. 



INTRODUCTION 



The Editor's note will furnish the reader 
with some particulars about the little book to 
which he has asked me to write a brief intro- 
duction. The author was a French Protestant, 
and he held that form of religious belief which, 
under the names of Quietism and Mysticism, 
was far more common among Romanists than 
among Protestants. The book was a favourite 
with the Princess Charlotte, and a copy still 
exists somewhere which belonged to her. The 
marginal remarks with which she has here and 
there annotated it, show that she had studied 
it with deep interest. The printed work is, 
however, believed to be now almost intronvabk. 
All that I can here attempt to do is to say a 
few words about the style and manner of the 
writer, and about one or two of his central 
thoughts. 



xvi 



Introduction 



His style unfortunately was unattractive. His 
sentences are often long, and loaded with paren- 
theses and iterations. He would have gained 
incomparably if he could have expressed him- 
self in such brief quivering sentences" as 
those which pierce our memory like winged 
arrows of light from the pages of the Imitatio 
Chris ti. 

The solemn truths which he expresses may 
seem strange to us because they lie indefi- 
nitely remote from the ordinary currents of 
modern religious thought and practice : but 
that is the very reason why they may be all 
the more necessary and profitable for our con- 
templation. 

The writer was overwhelmingly impressed 
with the necessity for Regeneratio7i. The con- 
viction that he who would aim at Christian 
perfectness must be "born again/' — that he 
must become, in the fullest meaning of the 
word, "a new creature," or rather ^^a new 
creation," — was ever present to his mind. He 
accepted it in no otiose or conventional sense, 
but in a sense which maintains that it is the 
duty of every one who would "go on unto 
perfection " absolutely to subvert, revolutionize, 
abnegate, and even amiihilate his self-hood. The 



Introduction xvii 

necessity for this deadness to self, made St. Paul 
write to his converts, Ye are dead, and your 
Hfe is hid with Christ in God " (Col. iii. 3). Of 
himself the Apostle said, in language which to 
him was not paradoxical or extravagant, "I 
have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless 
I live : yet not I, but Christ liveth in me " 
(Gal. ii. 20). 

This language, indeed, is not exceptional : it 
recurs again and again. ^'If we died with 
Him," he writes to Timothy, "we shall also live 
with Him." Death and life, to the habitual 
mode of thought of the Early Christians, meant 
"death in trespasses and sins," and "Hfe in 
Christ" ; so that St. Paul says again, " to me to 
live is Christ." The tragic poet of Greece 
asked in language which amused, and excited 
the ridicule of his contemporaries, " Who knows 
if death be Ufe, and life be death ? " ; — but the 
paradox of the Greek thinker was the common- 
place of the Christian Apostle. 

In these days such language is interpreted 
only in the sense that we must mortify, or slay 
at one blow, our lower nature, our purely 
animal instincts, " our members which are upon 
the earth." But the Mystics were perhaps 
nearer to the sentiment of those who first made 

b 



x\"iii 



Introduction 



such phrases famiUar, when they extended the 
significance of these expressions to the hfe of 
the intellect and the existence of even innocent 
desires. To them the language of our Lord 
and His Apostles implied not merely the sup- 
pression^ but the obliteration of oar own 
individuality. Our own human spirit, our own 
identity, so to speak, was, in their opinion, to 
be destroyed. Hence the writer seems to think 
very little of " the Pharisees " — so he calls them 
— who do httle more than aim at the ordinarily 
virtuous and religious life. He seems scarcely 
even to allow that they are good Christians,'^ 
however much they may pass for such. 

There is a great deal to learn from the 
writer's way of presenting these convictions, and 
they may be stated in forms, and with limita- 
tions, in which they are deeply worthy of our 
meditation. But in the lives and writings of 
some of the ]\Iystics and Quietists they are 
tainted by the falsehood of extremes.''" Apart 
from the blind Uteralism, which — with no allow- 
ance for Eastern metaphors and modes of 
expression — confuses rhetoric with logic, and 
would fain identify "the syllogism of passion" 
with the syllogism of calm reason — the Hfe 
which ruthlessly effaces from itself every human 



Introduction 



xix 



desire, and all which is distinctively itself, finds 
no real countenance either from the words of 
Scripture or from the lives of the Saints of 
God. 

The God who made us and is our Father, 
requires of us nothing which is non-natural ; 
but only that which is in the highest degree 
natural, and is indeed the only worthy outcome 
of our real^ which is our spiritual, nature. The 
suppression of " the ape and the tiger within 
us " is not the suppression of our genuine 
self, but of that animal part of us — that lower 
nature — which, as even Plato and the Greek 
philosophers saw, must be curbed, subdued, 
and even crushed within us, if we are to be 
holy men. It would be more true to the ideal 
of Scripture to describe the object of our efforts 
to be the elevation, the transformation, the 
transfiguratio7i (so to speak) of our self-hood, 
rather than the total effacement of that which 
we have to acquire in order to possess — namely, 
our real personality. By your endurance,'' said 
our Lord, ''^ ye shall acquire {KTy^o-ecrOe) your 
souls." 

The sculptor of the magnificent Beau 
Dieu " on the West front of the cathedral of 
Amiens had this thought in his mind when he 



Introduction 



represented Christ as standing pedestalled upon 
the lion and the dragon of human passions, 
while underneath are the cockatrice and the 
adder; representing ''the most active evil 
principles of the earth in their utmost malignity 
— the infidelity of pride and the infidelity of 
spiritual death." ^ It is a material symbol of the 
words of the Psalmist, " Thou shalt tread upon 
the lion and the adder ; the young lion and 
the dragon shalt thou trample under thy 
feet." 

In point of fact, then, those exercises of 
calm and ordinary virtuous living, of which the 
writer thinks perhaps too disdainfully because 
they move on a level so far below the icy 
summits of his own spiritualism, receive again 
and again the approval of Old Testament Pro- 
phets, and, quite as emphatically, of Evangelists 
and Apostles ; — yes ! and of our Blessed Lord 
Himself. He emphasized the words of Hosea, 
I will have mercy and not sacrifice." In the 
summing up of the Law and Prophets as con- 
tained in the one golden rule, and in His answer 
to the young ruler that the keeping of the 
commandments was the entrance into Life, He 
gives no sanction to those who talk contempt- 
^ See Ruskin, Oitr Fathers have told tcs^ p. 172. 



Introduction 



xxi 



uously or slightingly of mere morality." And, 
on one most memorable occasion, St. Peter, 
including all the virtuous heathen in his large 
eulogy, said — ''Verily, I perceive that God is 
no respecter of persons, but in every 7iation he 
that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is 
accepted of Him." We, in the frailty of our 
mortal nature, may be thankful that the chief 
Apostle thus admits the best sons of even the 
Pagan world into " the mystical Body of Christ, 
which is the blessed company of all faithful 
people." They too, as St. Augustine says, 
'' knocked at the door of Truth." Yet, while 
we do not forget these facts, we may be helped 
by the writer to remember also that St. Paul's 

hi Christ'' is the very signature of the ideal 
Christian, and that it involves indefinitely more 
than many Christians ever attempt to attain. 

While then the reader may learn from these 
pages the spirit of deep devotion, he need 
not be discouraged if the writer aims at carry- 
ing him into regions where the atmosphere has 
become far too rarefied for ordinary breathing. 
Keble sang most wisely — 

We need not bid for cloistered cell 
Our neighbour or our work farewell, 
Nor seek to wind ourselves too high 
For sinful man beneath the sky. 



xxii 



Introductio7L 



The trivial round, the common task 
Should furnish all we ought to ask : 
Room to deny ourselves, — a road 
To lead us daily nearer God." 

In the following verse he does indeed say — 

Seek we no more : content with these 
Let present rapture, comfort, ease, 
As heaven shall bid them come and go — 
The secret this of rest below. 

But no supposed counsel of perfection requires 
us to interpret this to mean the necessity for 
a life of seclusion, asceticism, self-torture, and 
contemplative inanition, such as the previous 
verses have repudiated. Such a discipline has 
often shown a tendency to become dangerous to 
ourselves and useless to others. And as there 
is not a single life of any saint in the Old or 
New Testaments — with the sole and very 
partial exceptions of Elijah and John the 
Baptist — which gives the least countenance to 
habitual eremitism and self-maceration, so, 
unquestionably, the experiments practised by 
many in this direction, from the days of the 
desert Hermits to those of the French Quietists, 
proved themselves, by their complete failure, 
to be beyond the reach of what God ordinarily 
requires of our frail humanity. Their careers 
not seldom ended in egregious downfall and 



Introduction xxiii 



collapse — mental, physical, and moral. In 
171 1 Lieutenant Cordier — his mind filled with 
the teachings of Madame Bourignon — retired 
with two like-minded Quietists to a life of 
silence and solitary starvation at Schwarkenau. 
When his companions found the life maddening 
rather than profitable, and therefore modified 
its original rules, he left them for a deeper 
solitude. ^^So," says Mr. Vaughan, in his 
Hours with the Mystics^ he was carried from 
extreme to extreme, till he reached a spurious 
resignation, a passivity which did not resist 
evil — a self-forgetfulness which ceased to recog- 
nize in himself his most dangerous enemy. 
From the height of spiritual pride he was 
precipitated into license." After marrying a 
wicked and hypocritical woman ''he event- 
ually returned to the world and a godless 
libertinism." 

Again the writer dwells much on that silent 
rapture, that absorbed passivity in player, which 
makes him almost disparage, or at any rate 
hold in very much lower esteem, not only all 
forms of words^ but all expression of one's 
own desires in our supplications to God. Here 
again he seems to push to an extreme a true 
principle. It is true that we shall not be heard 



xxiv 



Introduction 



for our much speaking, and that prayers exclu- 
sively selfish, especially when they are not only 
selfish but also earthly, may become con- 
temptible. It is true that we experience the 
most perfect happiness when we feel that we 
can resign ourselves wholly to the will of God. 
The story tells how the vision of Christ, appear- 
ing to St. Thomas Aquinas, said to him — 
Thou hast written well of me, Thomas : what 
reward dost thou desire ? " and he replied, with 
meek rapture — Non aliaDi nisi Te, Do77iine — 
" No other reward than Thyself, O Lord ! 
We know how Luther prayed, " O God, smite 
me with poverty, persecution, the loss of all, 
and with all the sore diseases in the world, 
rather than that Thou be silent to me.'' We 
all delight in the beautiful verse — 

Father, I know that all my life 

Is portioned out for me, 
And the changes which are sure to come 

I do not fear to see ; 
But I ask Thee for a present mind 

Intent on pleasing Thee." 

''You ask me what I wish?'' wrote Baron 

Bunsen. " Dear C , a man is, and remains, 

a child, when he sets about wishing: he is 
like a boat on the sea, between ebb and flood, 
never at rest/' 



Introduction 



XXV 



Complete acceptance of the will of God to- 
wards us is an attitude of mind at which every 
son of God should endeavour to arrive ; but 
God, so far from excluding, even encourages us 
to express to Him every desire of ours which is 
in itself right and becoming. We see from the 
example of St. Paul, and of Christ Himself, that 
we may, with perfect holiness and acceptance, 
entreat God even for earthly mercies, provided 
only that we bear in mind our ignorance of 
what may be best for us, and ask for such bless- 
ings — which may not be real blessings — in the 
spirit which says, "Nevertheless, not my will, 
but Thine be done.'' 

And as for forms of words, there is no 
age or country in which they have not been 
found helpful to earnest supplicants. Our Lord 
so readily encouraged them as a guidance and 
aid to prayer, that He at once granted a set 
form of words, both as a prayer and as a model 
for all prayers, to the entreaty of His Apostles, 
" Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught 
his disciples." And in that prayer, though six 
of the petitions concern our souls, yet one is 
inserted which, in its primary sense, bears also 
upon the needs of our mortal bodies. 

I do not make these remarks with any 



xxvi 



Introduction 



desire to depreciate the teaching of this Protest- 
ant mystic, but only to urge that, in trying to 
gain something of the spirit of hoUness and deep 
devotion from his exhortations, we should not 
be hopelessly discouraged and repelled by some 
of the extreme forms of his advice. With this 
caveat in their minds, I think that many readers 
will be helped by the thoughts which they read 
in the following pages. This little book will, 
indeed, have fulfilled its purpose if it leads any 
to substitute a real for a sham self-denial ; to sit 
more loosely to the vain and passing interests of 
time and sense ; and to aim at ^' something 
more high and heroical in religion than this age 
affecteth." 

Let me only point out, in conclusion, that 
there is one lesson on which the writer insists, 
and on which the Mystics often dwelt, which is 
supremely true, and which — had it but been 
rightly apprehended — would have prevented a 
thousand execrable persecutions and deplorable 
quarrels in every age of the Church. It is the 
truth that all "our unhappy divisions" are not 
due to religion^ but to religionism; that they 
arise from the stubborn self-admiration of oppos- 
ing intellects, and from violent opinionativeness 
about non-essential minutiae. 



Introduction xxvii 



" In our own day/' says the author of Hours 
with the Mystics^ every one implicated in re- 
ligious abuses identifies himself mth religion, 
and invests his own miserable personality with 
the benign grandeur of the Gospel." 

Those who have the root of the matter will 
not hate each other w^ith the boundless self- 
worship and infamous ruthlessness of Inquisi- 
tors. These famihars of the Holy Office," in 
the brutality of the torments at which they could 
gaze in cold blood, seemed to have wiped out 
from their own souls the tenderest and most 
Christlike of all human impulses. Could any- 
thing be more frightful^ more essentially 7io7i- 
Christian and ^?;?//-Christian, than the saying of 
Queen Mary, As the souls of heretics are 
hereafter eternally burning in hell, there can be 
nothing more proper than for me to imitate the 
Divine vengeance by burning them on earth " ? 

The best Christians, when they have learnt 
rightly to apprehend that "love is the fulfilling 
of the law," will rest on their essential unity 
in the common, simple faith expressed by the 
Apostles' Creed. The wisest and truest saints 
of God are at one in this view ; and all the 
world over, the holiest Christians are brothers 
of all other sincere Christians, in spite of 



XXVlll 



Introduction 



theological differences. ^'The meek, the just, 
the pious, the devout," said AVilliam Penn, 
are all of one rehgion, and they shall meet 
and recognize each other in the world to come, 
when their respective liveries are stripped away.'*' 
^'Take away these walls of separation,'" says the 
fervid Chillingworth, take away this burning, 
cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to 
the words of men as the words of God ; require 
of Christians only to believe Christ, and to call 
no man master but Him only. Let those leave 
claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and 
let them that in words disclaim it, disclaim it 
likewise in their actions.'" 

^'I love Calvin very well,'' wrote the excellent 
Dean Potter in 1713, "and I cannot hate 
Arminius. And for my part, I am verily per- 
suaded that these two are now where they agree 
well in the kingdom of heaven, while some of 
their passionate disciples are so eagerly brawl- 
ing here on earth." And again, For some years 
in my youth, when I was most ignorant, I was 
most confident : before I knew the true state or 
any grounds of these opinions, I would peremp- 
torily resolve them all. . . . Out of all this I 
collect, for my part, that all these points are no 
necessary catholic verities, nor essential to our 



Introduction 



XXIX 



faith, but merely matters of opinion, problem- 
atical, of inferior moment, wherein a man may 
err and be ignorant without danger to his 
soul." 

I am sick of opinions," said John Wesley, 
*'give me good substantial religion, a humble, 
gentle love of God and man. . . . How far is 
love, even with wrong opinions, to be preferred 
before truth itself without love ! We may die 
without the knowledge of many truths, and yet 
be carried into Abraham's bosom. But if we 
die without love, what will knowledge avail us ? 
Just as much as it avails the Devil and his 
angels." 

Do they accept love towards God and faith 
in our Lord Jesus Christ?" said Whitefield. 
"If so, they are my brethren." 

Are not these testimonies of saints direct 
echoes of the blessed promise of our Lord, 
" Where two or three shall be gathered to- 
gether in My Name, there am I in the midst 
of them " ? And when we contrast this lovely 
and immense simplicity of God's requirements 
with the entangled scholasticism, arrogant fury, 
and vain janglings of a mass of human theology, 
we may attach the greater value to what the 
writer of the following pages has said on this 



XXX 



Introduction 



subject, and to the exclamation of the Christian 
poet — 

O how unlike the complex works of man. 
Heaven's easy, artless, unencumbered plan ! 
It stands like the cerulean arch we see 
^Majestic in its own simplicity. 
Inscribed above the portal from afar. 
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star, 
Legible only by the light they give, 
Stand the soul-quickening words — ' Believe and 
live : 

F. W . Farrar. 



THE 

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS 



THE 

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS 

CHAPTER I 

THE DIVINE UNION 

Excellence of prayer — The false notion which we have 
of it — What it is — Operated by love — Its aim is our 
union with God, to which we cannot attain by our 
own efforts — The prayer of exposition, or laying our- 
selves open to God, prescribes nothing to Him — 
Vocal prayer — Few words — Aridity in prayer — Stated 
times are necessary — Fruit of prayer — How to dis- 
tinguish the aridity occasioned by our own fault — 
What it is to pray without ceasing. 

I. Divine Jesus, Thou who makest me to 
know the value of prayer, that it is the Ufe of 
our souls, that it is our all, reuniting us to 
Thee, that its price is invaluable, and cannot be 
comprehended : Thou who orderest us to pray 
without ceasing, teach us to pray as we ought. 
Dissipate the false ideas which our understand- 
ing, darkened by self-love, gives us of prayer, 
and do Thou vouchsafe to grant us true ideas, 
such as may render us Thy true worshippers^ that 

B 



2 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

zuorship God in spirit and in tritth (John iv,). 
It is Thy Spirit alone that can do this ; for it 
alone is Truth : all that it doth not operate and 
do by itself is nothing but error and falsehood. 
Oh, Divine Jesus, make for Thyself worshippers 
conformable to Thy will and pleasure. Thou 
knowest the desire which Thou hast long ago 
created in me to pray without ceasing ; accom- 
plish it, O Lord, in me, and in all those that 
appertain to Thee : make them to know wherein 
true prayer consists, that they may no longer 
remain fixed in error, nor make a hindrance of 
what ought to contribute to their progress ; and 
grant me to write of it according to Thy mind, 
and what may conduce to their advancement. 

2. Prayer is nothing else but the union of the 
heart or of the will to God^ before Whom we 
present ourselves, with intention to submit to 
His will. We offer ourselves to Him, that He 
may enable us to accomplish it : that for this 
purpose He may rid us of everything that brings 
any impediment thereto. It is love that makes 
us to exert this act, without which it is impos- 
sible to do it sincerely. For nothing but a great 
love for God can bring us to desire sincerely 
to be entirely subject and obedient to all His 
orders. Nothing but the same love can give us 



The Divine Union 



3 



the will to suffer Him to remove all impedi- 
ments that may hinder our fulfilling them. It 
is the same love which alone is able to kindle 
in us a desire to be incessantly in His presence, 
and under His eye, to behold Him continually, 
and never to lose sight of Him one single 
moment. The same love inclines us to suffer 
cheerfully all the painful operations which we 
must indispensably undergo by reason of the 
frightful dissimiUtude which we have contracted 
by the fallen state we are in, that we may be 
reinstated in His likeness and image. This is 
necessary in order to our recovering union with 
Him, which is the end of our creation. 

3. Here then is the end of prayer, prayer 
in effect and reality ; it is the Divine Union. 
When we are arrived at it, we pray w^ithout 
ceasing ; for we adore, we love, and are united 
to our beloved object : we know nothing 
but Him ; we forget ourselves and all things ; 
He alone is our all, our life, and our love. 
Having passed into this Supreme Being, solely 
amiable, solely adorable, we remain in Him 
without any other thing. O blessed transforma- 
tion of man into God, even in this tene- 
ment of flesh ! The prayer that comes nearest 
this end, is the most perfect ; that which is 



4 Ihe New Life in Christ Jesses 

farthest from it is the least perfect. It is 
plain we cannot by our own unassisted efforts 
put ourselves in a condition to arrive at the 
Divine Union, because by ourselves we cannot 
rid ourselves of the deformities that are in us, 
and stop our progress. 

4. Thus the prayer by which we expose and 
lay ourselves open before Him, and offer our- 
selves to Him, that He may take us under His 
operation, and act upon us according to His 
good pleasure, under the sensible conviction of 
our inability to perform this work, is that which 
is most agreeable to Him, and most conform- 
able to the reality of what He is, what He 
requires, and is able to do ; and to the reality 
of our weakness, nothingness, and wickedness. 
For it is certain that He hath a very great 
desire to redeem and rescue us from our cor- 
rupt and perverse state. He has the power ta 
do it, and wisdom to conduct that work, 
according as He sees it expedient for each of 
us. Destitute as we are of these qualities, 
what can we do better than to cast ourselves at 
His feet, as poor, weak, ignorant, and rebellious 
children, who are convinced of their weakness 
and do acknowledge His all-sufficiency to change, 
to assist, and create us anew, and to rescue us 



The Divine Union 



5 



from corruption ; what can we, I say, do more 
to the purpose, penetrated with these sentiments 
with respect to Him and ourseh-es, than to 
present ourselves before Him finding ourselves 
neither worthy nor sufficient, to utter one word 
in His presence, or to make one request, know- 
ing that He understands, better than we, all that 
is necessary to be done, that He may glorify 
Himself in us ? 

5. This doubtless is a manner of prayer that 
is most acceptable to Him, in which we lay 
open our whole heart to Him, and expose our- 
selves nakedly in His presence, that He may 
act in us at His pleasure, without prescribing to 
Him anything at all, neither willing nor desir- 
ing anything for ourselves, save that His will may 
be accomplished ; seeking neither comforts nor 
gifts, nor sensible proofs of His presence, other 
than faith, which, though obscure and without 
evidence, will alone render us sufficiently cer- 
tain. O how excellent is such a prayer ! though 
it should not allow us one sigh, or one desire, 
far less one word. Can any doubt of it? It 
springs from a love well refined, which forsakes 
itself in order to submit to the object of its love. 
If any will condemn this procedure, he hath not 
yet learned how he ought to love. Is there any- 



6 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

thing more generous and more loving than to give 
up one's self to Him, when one loves without 
terms, without restriction ? O Divine Jesus, it is 
thus we must love and adore Thee. To be thus 
before Thee even in the temporary absence of 
apparent encouragement from Thee, is the joy 
of a generous heart that burns with Thy flames 
without knowing it. Duty alone keeps such a 
heart before Thee, to bear all the strokes of Thy 
hand, which supports it though secretly, in order 
to enlighten and prepare it for new favours ; for 
Thy countenance kindles in it new fires. 

6. Let us not be afraid then to follow the 
attraction that inclines us to pray thus ; which 
shuts our mouth that we may learn to listen 
to the God of truth, who speaks to our heart 
in silence. For to the end His language 
may be well understood by our heart, our 
mind must cease from reasoning and bab- 
bling. He loves silence and holds His peace 
when we speak much ; for He deserves and 
loves to speak alone : Speak, Lord, for Thy 
servant heareth (i Sam. iii. 9). O my dear 
brethren, how many sublime things will He 
teach us, during the silence we shall observe 
in His presence ! Let us be undeceived of our 
mistakes and scruples, which would make us 



TJie Divine Union 



7 



believe that this kind of prayer is good for 
nothing, that we are idle therein, and tire our- 
selves, our heads being filled with a thousand 
fancies and distractions, which fatigue and tor- 
ment us cruelly. No matter ! let us suffer all 
this patiently for the love of God, and out of 
this chaos and darkness He will make a new 
flame of His love to arise in our heart, in order 
to become the conqueror of it. We shall find 
by experience that in spite of all those things 
He secretly makes Himself master of it ; and 
that after having for a sufficient time exercised 
our patience, He will display to us that admir- 
able work which He shall have wrought in our 
hearts without our knowledge. Only let us 
persevere unto the end. This is that prayer to 
which God attracts those whom He calls to His 
pure love, and in whom He designs to fix His 
throne, as sole King and Lord without a rival. 

7. Let us give the glory and the honour which 
are due to this dear Conqueror. This is our 
Divine Saviour's drift and aim, and that to which 
He wishes and desires to bring all His disciples. 
When the disciples desired to be taught how to 
pray, to satisfy them He teaches them a short 
prayer. Our Father, etc. (Matt. vi.). He tells 
them to use few \\ox^% for your Jieavculy Fa the? 



8 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

knowetJi what things ye have need of before ye ask 
Hi7n. Thus He gives words to accommodate 
Himself to our weakness, and not because they 
are necessary with respect to God, Who knows 
and understands our most secret thoughts. And 
if we utter words that are good, it is His Spirit 
tliat produces them : for the other words, which 
are the product of our own spirit, and the in- 
terpreters of our own desires, wills, and preten- 
sions, etc., these most certainly are not agree- 
able to God, and it were good to suppress them. 
Let us not make a trade of presenting before 
God great numbers and heaps of words artfully 
ranged one after another. This is what our 
Lord condemns the Pharisees for. Let us not 
fancy that we have done something very extra- 
ordinary, when, animated by a fervent zeal, we 
launch out into a multitude of words, by which 
we express our sensible fervour before God, and 
in the presence of men. This, for the most part, 
is the product of our self-love, our gluttony, or 
sensuality in spiritual things : we must needs see, 
feel, taste ; and we are often allured and deceived 
by these things, which for the greater part of the 
time have not the least spark of the pure love of 
God, but ourselves most commonly are our 
chief and principal end. 



The Divine Union 



9 



8. Let us not fancy, then, that we are desti- 
tute of prayer, when we find ourselves deprived 
and stripped of these sensible things : a dry, 
poor state before God, attended with silence and 
humility, is more agreeable to Him than all that 
glittering work. If our state is not yet such as 
that we can bear a prayer so destitute of images, 
of thoughts and of words as that which I have 
described, let us speak soberly before God. Let 
us not make our prayer to consist in words. Let 
rather the attention of the heart be directed to- 
wards Him. Let us speak so, as that we may be 
in the disposition to cease speaking as soon as 
we feel a sweet attraction within, drawing and 
inviting us to keep silence in the presence of 
God. Let us always prefer this silence to all our 
words and operations, for it eminently includes 
all that we can demand or desire. Let us act 
like children before our dear Father in hea\'en ; 
this is what is most acceptable to Him. Let us 
act with the heart, rather than with the head and 
the mouth ; loving and continuing in silence, or 
now and then uttering a few words, darted from 
the heart towards our well-beloved— this is pray- 
ing well. Li thus following the attraction of 
God in prayer, making it our principal business 
to keep our hearts attentive to Him, not tying 



10 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

ourselves down scrupulously — neither to some set 
forms, which we have composed or chosen, nor to 
feelings, nor to any one manner of prayer whatso- 
ever — we remain disposed to suffer the Spirit of 
God to operate in us, Who will Himself be our 
prayer, and perform that service, conducting us 
from one degree thereof to another, till such 
time as He become our continual prayer in us, 
purely without any operation of ours ; for ive 
know 7tot ivhat zve should pray for as we ought ^ 
according to St. Paul (Rom. viii. 26). Without 
this general rule, we always stop short, are con- 
fined within ourselves, and infinitely hinder our 
spiritual progress : our self-love is nourished by 
all our operations in spiritual things, and becomes 
thereby still more subtile and more refined. And 
this nevertheless is the capital enemy that must 
be destroyed, if the kingdom of God is to be 
estabhshed within us. It is then on its destruc- 
tion that the Spirit of God is bent in so strong 
a manner within us ; and it is in this too that 
God demands the greatest correspondence on 
our part. Now He operates this destruction by 
stripping us more and more of our own opera- 
tion and acting. We must not then desire to 
retain with a proprietary attachment, what He 
desires to loose us from ; otherwise we shall 



The Divine Union ii 



never have a share in that bliss which He 
promises to the poor in spirit, and He never will 
Himself alone become our treasure and only 
riches. 

9. Prayer is a thing so excellent and so 
necessary for man, that one can never sufficiently 
write of it and recommend it. And what I have 
said here of prayer, or perfect contemplation, 
does by no means exclude the other kinds of 
prayer, according to the state or degree of each 
person ; for prayer is conformable to the state 
of the soul. A thousand formularies of vocal 
prayers written in abundance of excellent books 
by some faithful servants of God, as well as many 
that have been composed for the use of Churches, 
are very good, and one may use them with 
profit, as long as the soul finds any rehsh there- 
in and nourishment, in order to raise up itself 
to God, from Whom it is still at a distance, and 
to Whom it approaches as from afar. The soul 
uses them as helps to retire from distractions, 
and a multitude of thoughts and occupations 
about the things of this world. 

10. If persons, of whatever condition they be, 
would carefully set apart some portions of time 
in the day or night, in order to consecrate them 
to prayer, and to perform it according as they 



12 The Neiv Life in Christ Jesus 

are capable, by their books and formularies, as 
helps to recollection, they would soon experience 
the benefit and advantage of it ; for man's 
alienation from his God is so frightful, that God 
must draw him from afar, and by degrees, in 
order to get access to his heart : he is carried to 
nothing more forcibly than to forget his God 
entirely. We live in a continual dissipation, 
occupied with the things of this world, with our 
pleasures or affairs ; and if these are not criminal, 
we fancy it matters not though we do not think 
of God. How profitable^ or allowable soever 
these things may be, if they make us forget 
God, they are abundantly mischievous, since 
this forgetfulness gradually brings with it all evil. 
Happy then are they w^ho expressly set apart 
some portions of time, evening and morning, at 
noon and at night, as did the pious King David, 
in order to think of their God, and willingly to 
think of nothing else. It is certain that setting 
to themselves this rule, it becomes a tribunal 
before which one is afraid to appear. And this 
fear is a check which often restrains us in our 
wanderings. And even in the height of our dis- 
orders and sins, the thought that we are in a few 
moments to present ourselves before God in 
prayer — this thought, I say, is sufficient to re- 



The Divine Union 



13 



strain us, and often to stop us from proceeding- 
farther to the execution of an evil of which we 
are soon to give account to God at the hour of 
prayer. 

11. It is true indeed, w^e are as much present 
to God at one time as another, and at the 
moment that w^e are about to do evil : thus this 
presence of God should suffice us for a check. 
But our condition is still so far from , being 
able to comprehend this truth of the continual 
presence of God, that though the idea we have 
of it at that time be defective, yet God, accom- 
modating Himself to our imperfect state, makes 
use of this means to preserve us from doing 
evil. Thus, I say, let us make use of this 
method of praying by wTitten formularies, if we 
find a relish in them, and that they serve to 
recall the mind from the things of this world, 
in order to make it think of God, of its 
duty, or of Divine things. Happy are the 
children that are trained by their fathers and 
mothers to such practices as these. God 
makes use of these means in order at least 
to recall men from time to time from their 
wanderings and continual distractions about 
things of this world. 

12. Frequently on these occasions, which are 



14 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

observed for the most part out of custom, He 
touches the heart sensibly by His Holy Spirit, 
and convicts the man, shows him his wicked and 
impenitent state, makes him take the resolution 
of living better, of abandoning such a vice, 
and applying himself to the exercise of such 
a virtue. Thus are these practices very laudable 
and good, and it were to be wished they were 
observed religiously among men. If they were 
faithful therein, and would discharge them with 
a sincere desire of advancing thereby into a 
better state, God would communicate more 
grace to them. But the misfortune is, that they 
who observe those things do it in general, 
not to use them as a means of amendment and 
of growing in virtue, but they secretly value 
themselves upon it before God, fancying they 
do Him a service in paying Him with grimaces 
and words, in which the heart has little or no 
share; that thereafter they may have a privilege, 
as they imagine, to employ the rest of the time 
as they please. These are the Pharisees that 
have only the appearance of piety, whose heart 
is not upright before God : and it is not for 
them that I write, but for those that have 
sincerity and some desire, though weak, of 
amending themselves. They ought to beware 



The Divifie Union 



IS 



of neglecting those times of prayer, and reading 
the Holy Scriptures and other good books, 
meditating on the matters they treat of, accord- 
ing as they find them profitable. Nor ought 
they to abstain therefrom out of sloth or other 
pretences. This may prove for them by the 
help of God a means or step towards a true 
and real conversion. 

13. And if by continuing these exercises, 
they find their hearts touched with the love of 
God, inflamed thereby, and inclined to pray to 
Him out of the abundance of the heart, in 
offering to Him with simplicity and confidence 
such words as their heart, sensibly touched, 
shall suggest to them; they ought forthwith 
to do it without scruple, and to pray to God 
simply as the heart moves them, to declare to 
Him ingenuously the wants they feel, and to 
treat with God with an entire confidence as 
much as they can, till such time as their whole 
heart is converted and gained over to Him, 
Who will draw them more and more, if they 
are sincere, to a more perfect conversion and 
prayer. When they shall have spoken enough 
before Him, asked enough, and knocked at the 
gate with all their might, they shall experience 
the unction of grace, which will invite them by 



1 6 The New Life in Christ Jestts 

degrees to cease from their own operation and 
speaking, and to attend in a loving manner to 
Him Who is for the future to become their 
Master, to teach them inwardly, to manifest 
Himself to their heart, to teach them to hear 
His voice, which is the voice of the true 
Shepherd, and to put them in a condition not 
to be in want of anything, since they are to find 
in Him all of which they stand in need. Then 
may one say of these souls. Ye 7ieed not that 
any man teach you (i John ii. 27). This is that 
Divine Teacher who leads the faithful soul from 
one degree to another; from a prayer of multi- 
plicity, meditation, and great activity, wherein 
man appears to do all, to a prayer more calm, 
more simple, mixed with silence and recollec- 
tion, and attention of the heart to God, Who 
lovingly attracts and invites thereto, and gives us 
to understand that it is not enough to pray a 
certain time, or at a certain hour, but that one 
must form a habit of being ahvays, at all times, 
on every occasion and occupation in the 
Divine Presence, as God charged Abraham: 
that it is this we must cultivate and seek after 
incessantly, never to forget Him one moment, 
the least we can with the mind and still less 
with the heart; applying ourselves for this 



Tlie Divine Unio?i 



17 



purpose to do everything that our state and 
condition requires of us, for His sake Who is 
always present with us. Whoever appUes him- 
self assiduously and with simplicity to this 
exercise of the presence of God, will soon 
experience that Divine Presence in his heart, 
which will teach him more and better than all 
that can be said of it. For experimentally to 
find Gcd within one's self, where He loves 
to manifest Himself, surpasses all imaginable 
treasures, and makes us to know God as He is : 
produces in us by His light the true knowledge 
of ourselves, which teaches us to hate ourselves, 
and to love Him in a sovereign degree; which 
are the fruits of prayer. 

14. My meaning then is, that all prayers are 
good, so far as they serve as means to draw and 
make us approach towards God, whether they 
are said by set forms, or in a discursive manner 
by the operation of the understanding, and the 
motion of the heart; whether they be a few 
short words, uttered rather by the heart, and 
the desires that are formed therein, than by 
the understanding; or whether they be prayers 
of silence, or of simply exposing ourselves in 
the presence of God. Each man may use them 
profitably according to his state: no kind is to 

c 



1 8 Tlie New Life in Christ Jcsiis 

be rejected. Only we are to confine ourselves to 
none, but to follow the Divine attraction, which 
manifests itself by incHning the heart, giving it 
a relish for that manner of prayer which suits 
our present state, wherein we find the nourish- 
ment of our heart, and a disgust and aversion 
for that which is threadbare to us, and which we 
ought to leave off without scruple. A Christian 
should apply himself only to the reality of 
prayer, ^vhereof we have treated in the first part 
of this discourse, and not confine and tie himself 
down to forms and modes, which are useful 
only as means of prayer for a time, as long as 
it pleases God, Whom we ought to suffer to 
become more and more the INIaster and entire 
possessor of our hearts, w^hich are His kingdom : 
the end and scope of all these things being, 
that God may establish His reign in our hearts. 
This is the grace I wish to all w^ell-disposed 
souls. Amen, Jesus. 

15. I add further, that the more the heart 
acteth, and the less the understanding or reason- 
ing faculty is concerned in prayer, the better it 
is ; I mean, as long as it is still active, and 
operated by the soul. And the more the heart 
reposes with all the other powers of the soul, in 
pure and simple faith, so much the more perfect 



The Divine Union 



19 



it is. O Lord Jesus, teach us to pray according 
to Thy will ; be Thou Thyself our prayer, my 
merciful Jesus ! I beg that my prayer to Thee 
may never be interrupted nor discontinued. 
Amen. 

16. But indeed we do ourselves great harm, 
and stop our progress and advancement towards 
God infinitely, when after w^e are touched in- 
wardly by Him, having experienced His presence, 
or having alrccidy become in some degree 
spiritual, we resist His internal attractions which 
are designed to draw us from our multiplicity in 
prayer, and in all things, in order to simplify us 
still more; when we cleave to our own opera- 
tions, meditations, thoughts, and desires, which 
we will needs be always exciting or awakening 
by a thousand different means which we grasp 
and lay hold of, believing that w^e are just going 
to perish and fall away when those sensible 
things leave us, or seem to abate; not compre- 
hending that it is God Who invites us to forsake 
ourselves and our own actings, that He may 
Himself become our life and all our operations ; 
yea, to the end that He may banish self, in 
order to make His abode in us, and become 
the soul of our soul, and the life of our life, 
which can never be if we do not abandon our 



20 The Nei-c Life in Christ Jesus 

own operations vrhen it is time to quit them. 
^^'e think it necessary by all means to bestir 
ourselves, and produce some sensibihty, and 
we fancy that by tormenting and wearying 
ourselveSj and doing a great deal by our own 
spirit, importuning God,, so to speak, to grant 
us these fervours, we work wonders, and we 
believe we have gained consi ::erably when 
by these eftbrts we have banished death out 
of our territories: I mean that aridity and 
inability we feel, which desires to take posses- 
sion of us. in order to strip us of ourselves, 
to make us die to ourselves, and to all stay 
and trust in ourselves and our operations : 
to make us place our hope in God only, and 
utterly to despair of ourselves : to invite us to 
surrender to Him without terms and vrithout 
reserve. To all this we are induced only by 
the experience of our inability for every good 
thing, yea, so much as to form one good 
thought. 

17. I know well that we may fall into dryness 
and aridity by our own fault, our infidelities and 
strayings from God, and that this frequently 
happens. But this also clearly discovers itself 
in our hearts when we put ourselves in the 
presence of God nakedly, without busying our- 



The Divine Unio7i 



21 



selves with our reflections or reasonings. These 
proceed from self-love, from the care and con- 
cern we have about ourselves, from the appre- 
hension of perishing, which raises a thousand 
terrors, and makes us desire to take care of our- 
selves and to be always looking to every step we 
take, by which we are hindered from ever pass- 
ing the limits of ourselves. If, I say, without 
listening to all this, which our own spirit 
(wherein the devil intermingles his influences) 
suggests to us, we look up to God alone with 
the eyes of our heart, in faith and absolute re- 
signation to" Him, He will surely enlighten us, 
and plainly discover to us whether the aridity 
we are in, and the state of nakedness to which 
we are sensibly attracted, be a state that comes 
from Him, or w^hether it be our infidelity or 
lukewarmness that draws it upon us. 

1 8. O what happiness! O what grace, to 
dare to be incessantly at Thy feet, and in Thy 
presence, O great God ! What favour, to dare 
to be at all times and in all places with God ! 
Who will take advantage of it? Thou not 
only allowest it, but Thou commandest it ! Let 
us then go to Him with boldness, and without 
more ado, just as we are. Let no pretext stop or 
hinder us from presenting ourselves before this 



22 The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

God of Love, Who is willing to receive us just 
as we are. Nothing pleases Him more than 
when we go to Him without any other stay save 
His grace ; feeling and seeing nothing in us but 
misery, which makes us to hold our peace and 
lie prostrate at His feet. He raises us, and often 
caresses and encourages us, in spite of the 
tempest that overwhelms us. O let us live with 
God, my dear brethren ! This is our vocation. 
Let us draw nigh to Him; He draws, He calls 
us, and desires to make us happy by Himself. 
He desires to do no less for us than that, 
instead of our poverty and misery, we should 
be clothed with His glory ; that we should lose 
our wretched being, which overwhelms us with 
troubles, and loads us with its weight in a 
thousand different shapes, in order to be trans- 
formed into Him. Nay, the destruction of 
our ^elfness, which we apprehended more than 
death itself, is only an exchange of our no- 
thingness for all His riches, yea for Himself. 
O extreme joy! Come, ye men, make the 
experiment yourselves of what I say. All your 
sorrows shall cease, you shall do nothing but 
praise and adore Him here below, even until 
death. Then shall immense glory be completed. 
Glory and honour be to our God for ever and 



The Divine Union 



23 



ever! Let praises be rendered to Himself, He 
alone is worthy of them. Amen. 

19. Prayer, as I have already said, is nothing 
else but the union of our soul with God. 
When our soul is united to our body, that 
union is felt only by the effects which it 
produces, namely, the life and motions which 
the soul gives the body, by which it makes 
the body to do what it pleases without constraint 
but most naturally and without effort. It 
is by this life and effect that one knows the 
union of the soul with the body, which other- 
wise does not make itself to be distinctly 
perceived. Just so as to respiration : a man in 
health breathes the air without effort and with- 
out giving any distinct attention thereto. He 
does not perceive that action, but when some 
disorder in the parts hinders the respiration. 
Then he distinctly feels the need he has of 
breathing ; it is the disease that renders the 
need distinct. Also when the soul is about to 
separate from the body one perceives its union, 
which suffers some alteration. Just so it is 
of the union of our soul with God, Who is 
the Soul of our soul, and the Life of our life. 
Our separation from Him makes us feel dis- 
tinctly the need we have of being united to 



24 Tlie Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

Him by prayer ; which is, that our heart, our 
love, and all our inclinations be turned towards 
Him ; yea, that our whole attentions be turned 
away, separated from all creatures and our- 
selves, in order to be united with and directed 
towards God, Who is our centre, and the 
place of our rest. As long as we perform this 
action now and then, it is not continual, and 
is so much the more distinct as we are still 
separated and at a distance from the Divine 
Union. But the more this Union is continued, 
the more also it becomes imperceptible, till 
such time as our Union be without interruption, 
and no longer momentary but inseparable, and 
that this God of love is become our life. / live 
no more^ it is Christ the eternal Word that liveth 
in nie ; no more separation, no more alteration. 
Then we live in God quite naturally : our state 
of death hath been swallowed up by His life. 
Then we no longer perceive our prayer distinctly; 
it is continual. We do not discern any more 
that we pray; this is to pray vvithout ceasing. 
O Holy Jesus, it is the desire of my soul to 
pray thus. Do Thou teach it me, Thou Who 
hast commanded us to pray incessantly. My 
God, Thou knowest that out of this state 1 
languish, I pine, and die continually. Grant, 



Tlie Divine Union 25 



O my God, that I may be continually sacrificed 
as a victim slain at Thy feet, without life, save 
only when Thou quickenest me by Thy Spirit, 
which is my only life, every other life being 
snatched away and insupportable to me. Thine 
only be the glory and the life. Amen, Jesus. 



CHAPTER II 



THE DIVINE TEACHER 

The difference between Jesus Christ and other teacliers— 
The outward teaching gives no true l^nowledge — Com- 
parison — Cause of schism in Christendom — Who it is 
that is disposed to learn of Jesus Christ — Those tliat 
are tauglit of God have no disputes among them. 

I. ''One is your Teacher, even Christ."' How 
theii; my Saviour? Hast not Thou appointed 
many pastors and ministers to teach us ? Thou 
hast also vouchsafed me the grace to be in- 
structed from my youth up in Thy Holy Scrip- 
tures, and in the truths of the Christian religion, 
by those that had the care of my education, and 
by the good books that fell into my hands. 
How dost Thou say then, tJiat one only is your 
Master ? It is true, Tord, these teachers have 
taught me outwardly ; they have indeed in some 
measure conveyed some light into my under- 
standing, and stored my memory with the truths 

of religion, and on that account I am bound to 
26 



The Divifie TeacJier 



2/ 



give Thee thanks. But these voices and in- 
structions from without are not sufficient ; they 
indeed give some knowledge, but Thou alone 
touchest the heart : Thy word and Thy instruc- 
tions are quite another thing. Thou teachest 
us of Thyself ; Thou speakest in our inmost 
hearts ; Thy words are spirit and life ; Thou 
makest the will to share in the light which Thou 
impartest to the understanding; Thou speakest 
in the heart and soul ; Thou imprintest and en- 
gravest in the heart what Thou speakest therein ; 
Thy word penetrateth into the very essence of the 
soul. In truth, my Saviour, he to whom Thou 
vouchsafest the grace to experience it, can bear 
witness of it, and is obliged to confess the truth 
of Thy words, One alone is your Alaster. 

2. We even find by experience that all that 
we have learned by speculation, and received 
as true, had little or no reality, had produced 
nothing but an historical faith, and that one 
knows nothing at all. To this pass Tliou 
bringest us, O Divine Teaclier ! tliat we are 
obliged to confess tliat we neither know nor 
understand anything. When Thou hast brought 
us to this poverty of spirit, to this humility by 
the experience of our incapacity and ignorance, 
then in due time, being convinced that Thou 



28 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

art the sole Teacher, havmg caused us with 
Mary to place ourselves at Thy feet, full of love 
towards Thee, and hatred towards ourselves, 
lying on the dunghill of our wretchedness and 
misery ; then I say, in this humble disposition, 
Thou comest w^hen Thou pleasest to instruct 
us, not outwardly by the senses, but inwardly 
by Thy efficacious word, which imprints and 
engraves in our hearts whatever Thou art pleased 
to teach and reveal to us. 

3. Thou first changest our hearts, and renewest 
them, and then Thou teachest us Thy mysteries, 
as Thou pleasest. Thou openest-our under- 
standings to understand Thy Scriptures ; and 
then w^hat l^hou teachest us is acknowledged by 
us to be reality and truth : it becomes our own, 
and is no more speculative but experimental. 
Thus Thou dealest by me, O my Saviour ! I 
have, it is true, been instructed in the mysteries 
contained in Thy Holy Scriptures ; but from the 
time Thou hast been pleased to teach me, I am 
satisfied that Thy words alone are Spirit and 
Life. When Thou discoverest a thing, we know 
it, and no sooner, though we thought that we had 
learned it in our younger years. It is then, 
what Thou hast taught me, O my Saviour Whom 
I adore ! that I have put in writing, that it may 



Tlie Divine Teaclier 29 

serve as a proof that Thy \Yords are Spirit and 
Life^ and that Thou art the only Teac/ie?\ 

4. What our Lord teaches us in^yardly, com- 
pared to what we learn outwardly by the memory, 
is as different, or appears to me to be still more 
so, as to learn geography in a map, and by the 
description of a country or kingdom that we are 
reading. We conceiye some idea of them : but it 
is quite another thing, when a man goes himself 
into that kingdom. He travels and surveys it, 
sees all the places and towns : he converses, he 
learns by his own experience to know the in- 
habitants, their maxims, their manners, etc. This 
second method is infinitely more real than the 
first; and a man finds in surveying all things with 
his own eyes, that the ideas which he had formed 
of the country, whereof he had seen and read 
the description in a map, were very imperfect, 
and often false. Indeed the comparison is still 
much too weak, to point out the difference 
there is between what we learn ourselves from 
men and books, and what God teaches us 
inwardly. 

5. I am of opinion, that the different creeds, 
which occasion so many divisions in the world, 
are owing to men not suffering themselves to be 
taught by their Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ. 



30 The Nezu Life in Christ Jesus 

If we captivated our understanding, our pre- 
tended natural lights and reasonings, in order 
to receive by submitting them to Faith, all that 
our Lord has taught us in the Holy Scripture ; 
to believe it, I say, and to receive it, as He has 
taught it, and in the sense that He understood 
it, without explaining it by our own reasoning ; 
and if, in thus submitting ourselves to the 
truth of His words, we had nothing at heart 
but to obtain the grace to understand them, by 
the obedience which we are willing to render 
Him in thus presenting ourselves before Him ; 
then, I say. He would open our understanding, 
as He did for the disciples going to Emmaus, 
and we should see that He would operate in all 
of us, the unity of faith. For this is what our 
Divine Saviour says : My doctrine is not Mine^ 
but His that sent Me. If any man will do His 
will^ he shall knoiu of the doctrine whether it be 
of God (John vii. 17). 

6. It is an humble heart then, and desirous 
to submit to the yoke of our Lord, which we 
must have in order to learn of Him. But when 
we will needs learn by ourselves, and comprehend 
the Holy Scriptures by the efforts of our under- 
standing, we explain and apply them according 
to our ideas, and give them that sense which is 



The Divine Teacher 



31 



most convenient and proper to support what we 
have proposed to ourselves. And this diversity 
of ideas creates all the disputes and differences 
in religion. Each chooses what appears to him 
most probable, and makes it the object of his 
faith, or his behef, as they call it ; and believes 
that he does God service in supporting his 
opinions even to blood. The Holy Scripture is 
inspired by God, and hath been written by 
instruments moved thereto by the Holy Spirit. 
It is then to that Holy Spirit that it properly 
belongs, to give the explanation thereof ; for He 
alone it is that can give the true meaning : The 
natural 7?ia?i receiveth ?iot the thi?igs of the Spirit 
of God (i Cor. ii. 14). 

7. Hence it comes to pass that men of great 
knowledge and great genius, who have acquired 
to themselves credit and authority among men, 
have formed parties, and dispute one against 
another. They have filled the world with volumes 
to prove and support their opinions, while 
neither the one nor the other, though differing 
in opinion, have acquired the true science of 
the Saints, nor are become childre?i ; which, 
however, is necessary, according to the declara- 
tion of our Divine Master, i?i order to e?iter i?ito 
the Ki?igdom of Heaveri. Nay, rather, by the 



32 The New Life i7i Christ Jesus 

multitude of their reasonings, they deviate still 
more from simplicity and child-like docility, 
and become still more unfit for simple faith, 
which receives our Saviour's words without 
examining them, but takes them in the sense 
in which He Himself conceived and understood 
them. Those that do embrace this simplicity, in 
acknowledging their incapacity to comprehend 
divine things, have that humble disposition 
which our Lord Jesus Christ demands, in order 
to be taught of Him. 

8. Hence it comes that simple souls in this 
disposition do receive the light of His Holy 
Spirit. Experience shows that there is no 
dispute nor diversity among those that are thus 
taught of God, who, having learned of Him in 
practising His instructions, have given Him 
their heart, and have rather endeavoured to 
practise simply what He enjoins, than to learn all 
His doctrine by art and method. These have 
applied themselves rather to love than to specu- 
late; rather to let their hearts be filled with the 
fire of divine love, than to stuff their heads 
with much learning, many opinions and systems 
of school divinity. Among these, I say, we find 
an entire uniformity of sentiments, in whatever 
age they lived, or to whatever party of religion 



The Divine Teaclier 



33 



they belonged. If they have written their ex- 
periences, or what the Spirit of Grace wrought 
in them — how that Holy Spirit purified them 
from dead works ; led them to true penitence 
and amendment of life; made them to abandon 
their sins, their vices, and their wicked habits; 
and regenerated them, attacking and destroying 
sin in its source, to wit, self-love^ which is so 
deeply rooted in us, to the end that Jesus 
Christ may live and reign alone in us: — in all 
this economy of grace, which operates regenera- 
tion, there is found an entire harmony in what 
men write of it from their own experience, 
though they have never seen nor known each 
other. I believe it would be just the same with 
regard to the doctrines of religion, if we would 
forbear comprehending them by our own spirit, 
and would believe simply vdiat is revealed of 
them in the Holy Scripture, reviewing all the 
passages that treat of them, even when they 
appear to contradict each other, without at- 
tempting to explain or reconcile them after our 
mode. A time would come when the Spirit of 
God Himself would give us the understanding 
of them and would take off and explain all the 
difficulties : and I am persuaded that there 

D 



34 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

would be found an entire uniformity. But till 
the time shall come that men shall suffer them- 
selves to be conducted by the Spirit of God, 
there will be nothing but dissension, diversity, 
and confusion. 



CHAPTER III 



THE SECRET VOICE 

The Name of God is published to the world without the 
sound of any external voicCj but by the virtue of that 
secret voice which forms the new creature in all. 

I. It is said in the Prophet Isaiah : Behold My 
servant^ whom I uphold ; Mine elects hi luhom 
Aly soul delighteth ; I have put My Spirit up07i 
him : he shall bri?ig forth judgme?it to the 
Gentiles (Isaiah xhi. i). He also saith : He 
shall not cry^ nor lift up^ nor cause his voice to be 
heard m the street. How shall we reconcile 
this, O holy Prophet ? If this Servant of God, 
who is none other than our adorable Jesus 
Christ, is to pubHsh the Name of God to the 
nations. His voice must needs be heard in the 
streets ; why do you say then that His voice 
shall not be heard ? The allusion is to that holy 
efficacious voice which penetrates into the in- 
most heart of the soul, which is the Word itself, 
35 



36 The New Life i7i Christ Jesits 

the Word of God. It makes for itself secret 
paths and conveyances by which it reaches the 
heart, strikes it, and becomes master of it ; and 
though the senses are not affected, so that one 
doth not hear that voice outwardly, which is 
here expressed by the streets^ yet it is so much 
the more efficacious, and so much the more 
powerfully it penetrates the heart. 

2. This is that secret voice which, possessing 
itself of the heart, works the true conversion, 
changes the man, gives him inclinations quite 
contrary to those he had before ; and without 
his knowing how this is brought about, he finds 
himself by degrees changed into another person. 
What is wonderful is, how that expression of 
the holy Prophet is fulfilled ; for experience 
teaches us how the sacred voice does not make 
itself to be heard in the streets. Whatever strikes 
the senses, and causes great and sensible emo- 
tions in the powers of the soul, making a great 
deal of bustle and noise, is not that voice which 
insinuates itself secretly and in quiet, in deep 
silence and in dark night. This voice hides its 
operation from our senses, and yet speaks 
so powerfully in the depth of the heart, that 
how mute and unknown soever it may be to the 
outward and inward senses, it changes the heart 



The Secret Voice 37 



entirely. A man finds by experience that the 
more he shuts his senses to all other voices, the 
more this (which alone deserves to bear the 
name of Voice) operates and creates new 
wonders in the heart. It is at present that this 
expression of the Prophet shall have its accom- 
plishment more and more. God shall send 
His Word through all the world, and shall take 
possession of millions of hearts, converting and 
transforming them into new creatures. 

3. Yes, the Spirit of our Lord shall reveal 
itself more and more ; and the more it shall 
discover the insufficiency of the voices, or 
rather sounds, that strike the senses outwardly, 
to change the man, and convert him truly to 
our Lord, the more sensible shall be the efficacy 
and virtue of His voice in men's hearts, in order 
to convert them to the Lord their God. O 
happy and fortunate times ! wherein God will 
Himself do His own work among men. It is 
the pecuharity of our times that God will 
operate in hearts after an immediate manner, 
and prepare instruments for Himself, even the 
souls whom our Lord Jesus hath chosen, to 
unite them to Himself, and to operate in them 
and by them in a manner altogether spiritual, 
and without the intervention of the senses. 



38 The Neiu Life in Clirist Jesus 



4. What joy will it be, thus to see the 
wonders of our God ! How souls chansje their 
inclinations, how they walk and advance with 
rapid steps in the way that leads them to God, 
forsake themselves daily, are disengaged from 
all things ; and how the pure love of God grows 
in their hearts visibly, so to speak ; who never- 
theless do nothing else but present themselves 
to this God of love, walk in simplicity in His 
presence, and abandon themseh^es to the con- 
duct of His providence in a simple and child= 
like manner, without any other thing, or any 
other choice ! While others incessantly fill 
their heads with a thousand ideas and images 
of good things, speak of them, and read 
much about them, and in the meantime their 
hearts remain empty, while their senses are 
glutted ! They are full of themselves, of their 
own interest and self-love in all things ; they 
are themselves the principle that moves them 
to act in spiritual or temporal concerns. While 
others, in their emptiness and spiritual poverty, 
overwhelmed, the greater part of the time, with 
the weight of their weaknesses, having no stay 
or support on which they can ground their ex- 
pectations, resignation to their God being 
their only support, without any that is sensible, 



The Secret Voice 



39 



perceiving plainly that they can pretend to 
nothing ; so poor do they see themselves, 
and destitute of all good in themselves ; — 
these I say, notwithstanding their poverty, are 
put into the truth. They forsake themselves, 
and see themselves on a sudden filled with 
God ; they have lost their old nature without 
knowing it. The face of the eternal God, His 
secret and powerful Voice, has made their own 
being to vanish and disappear; there remains 
nothing m.ore for them but God in this low 
habitation. 

5. This, Lord, is the business of Mary, idle 
in appearance, laid at Thy feet in her 7iothi7ig- 
7iess. She stirs not from her place, ever passive 
and attentive to Thy voice, which is mute for 
the senses, but eloquent to the spirit. She is 
united in spirit with Thee ; Thou hast favoured 
her therewith. By Thee and with Thee she 
travels all the whole word over ; Thy word by 
her means insinuateth itself into the hearts. 
This lover wins them to Thee, O Divine Saviour, 
without stirring from beside Thee. She produces 
more fruit without any noise, and more real 
effects than the sound of all the voices that 
strike upon our outward ears. Lord, we allow 
these their merit, but Thou art the Voice 



40 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

that alone changeth the heart, that inflameth it 
in a manner worthy of Thyself, that it may burn 
with Thy pure love. Speak then^ Lord, for Thy 
servant heaj^eth : Thou art the sole Teacher. 
Thou hast said so Thyself, and Thou always 
sayest it. May we worship Thee and listen to 
Thee ! Amen. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE TRUE WISDOM 

The difference between a philosopher and a Christian — 
What a philosopher is — They pass for good Christians 
— The Spirit of Christ makes the Christian — The 
power of the love of God in the simple — It renders 
them contemptible to the wise — At last restores all 
abundantly. 

I. Methinks a philosopher is a man who 
examines everything profoundly by the Hght of 
his reason, who will needs know the cause and 
the reason of everything that is proposed to him ; 
whether it be just and reasonable to act this 
way or that ; who believes nothing but what he 
sees, and which is clearly demonstrated to him. 
As it appears then to him a thing very plain, 
and which perfectly agrees with his reasoning, 
that we must avoid and abstain from vice, and 
on the contrary practise virtue, hate the one and 
love the other : if such a philosopher is upright 
and sincere, he will study by all means to 
41 



42 TJie New Life in CJirist Jesus 

practise what his reason is convinced of. He 
will not suffer his passions to bear sway, but 
will bridle and keep them under by the strength 
of his understanding and reasoning, which 
persuade him that it is a shame to follow one's 
passions, and suffer them to get the mastery of 
him. Here is my opinion in a few words, how 
a rational and sincere man governs himself in his 
conduct. And the more exact he is in follow- 
ing the light of his reason, the more regular and 
formal you shall find him in all his actions. 
This is what made so many heathen philosophers 
— who have been held in admiration on account 
of their doctrine and conduct — practise virtue, 
and combat vice, to far greater perfection than 
many others who call themselves Christians, 

2. Among these last there are still some 
persons who endeavour, in the same manner 
that those others have done, to live virtuously, 
and who by the conviction their reason affords 
them, study by all means to lead a w^ise and 
rational hfe. And as the Christian religion affords 
us a most complete system of morality which the 
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us in 
its highest perfection, the reasonings of wise 
men do agree exceedingly well with this doctrine 
to a certain point. And so such a wise man who 



The True Wisdom 



43 



applies himself, though faintly, to live a virtuous 
life, and does not follow the loose and unbridled 
conduct of libertines ; such a man, I say, passes 
immediately among us for a good Christian. 
The more pains he bestows, the more assiduous 
he is, and the more he strives to follow the 
paths of virtue, still the more he is looked upon 
as a good Christian. 

3. We for the most part know no other Chris- 
tianity which engages us to a different conduct ; 
it is excellent and approved by all, and passes 
for being the true Christian religion ; and 
indeed the practice of it is rarely enough to 
be found among the multitudes who confess 
what we call the Christian Faith. There are 
jndeed very few who carry the practice of it so 
high. Such as do it, and employ all the strength 
of their understanding to gain a rational convic- 
tion that they ought to combat their vices and 
practise virtue, are greatly to be esteemed. 

4. Meanwhile, though in truth we know little 
other Christianity, nevertheless it is my opinion 
that such wise and virtuous persons are still at a 
great distance from it. They still w^ant the know- 
ledge of His power Whom they confess to be 
their Saviour. For, I beseech you tell me, is the 
bare historical knowledge of Jesus Christ, and 



44 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

of ^Yhat we read that He hath externally done 
for us ; the practice of a few outward cere- 
monies ; all this with a life that does not come 
near to that virtue which some heathens have 
practised with far greater perfection ; will ever 
these things make a Christian ? Doubtless they 
will, you will say ; v\-hat more would you have ? 
Alas ! it is most true that men in general are 
sunk in such a dreadful corruption, and suffer 
themselves to be led by their corrupt passions, 
without shame, into all sorts of vice, that it is 
not surprising if that man is accounted a good 
Christian, who applies himself, though faintly, to 
the practice of virtue. But where is the spirit 
of Christianity ? In fine, what is that spirit ? 
And how can it be proved that such sages have 
it not ? 

5. St. Paul (i Cor. xiii.), speaking of Lore^ 
makes a description of all that one can do 
without it ; of the gifts, graces, and virtues which 
one may possess ; of so extraordinary a libe?-- 
ality^ that one would call it Love in a most emi- 
nent degree, since it goes so far as to give all 
one's goods to the poor : of a zeal for the 
confession of one's belief, or one's faith, which 
rises so high as to give one's body to be biivjit. 
Who is it that pushes his devotion and his zeal 



Tlie True Wisdom 



45 



thus far ? And yet the apostle says, that with- 
out Love all is nothing : / am 7iofhi?ig, What 
then is this Love, O holy apostle ? He enumer- 
ates its effects very particularly ; but what it is 
itself, St. John the beloved disciple informs us, 
saying, God is love (i John iv. 8). It is God 
Himself then that is Love^ and we have not 
Love if we have not God in us. It is the Love 
of God, His Word, His Spirit — all is one— for if 
a?iy man have 7iot the Spirit of Christ, he is 
none of LLis (Rom. viii. 9, 14). Here then is 
what makes a Christian, namely. His Spirit : 
Those that are moved or led by the Spirit of God, 
they are the children of God. It is the Spirit in 
a person that makes him to be what he is. Here 
then is the distinguishing character of a Chris- 
tian : he is one in whom the Spirit of God 
dwel/s, whom it moves, governs, and leads, as St. 
Paul saith, Lf the Spirit of Christ dtuelieth in 
you, etc. 

6. This is that Spirit which must be the 
principle of life whence all our actions and 
operations flow, that they may be agreeable to 
God, and accepted by Him ; for it is in His 
well-beloved Son that He is well pleased (Matt, 
iii.). It is His Word, or His Wisdom. Where it 
reigns and lives, there He takes His delight. 



4-6 T/ie New Life in Christ Jesus 

It is this kingdom which He teaches us to pray 
for (which is within us), Thy Ki7igdom come 
(Matt. vi. 10 j Luke xvii. 21). God loves nothing 
but Himself, and nothing is amiable but He, 
for nothing is good but He. There is 7i07ie good 
hut ojie^ that is God (Matt. xix. 17), saith Jesus 
Christ; and if Jesus Christ declares it, and 
rebuketh him that calleth Him Good Master^ 
according to His humanity, and will ascribe this 
name to none but God alone, much less ought 
w^e to apply it to others. God alone then is 
good, and consequently alone worthy to be 
loved. It is Himself, His Word in us, or Love^ 
that is good and acceptable to God. It is this 
Spirit then that makes the Christian, and renders 
all the actions and all the virtues of the man 
that is ruled and governed by it. Christian 
virtues and actions, because they flow from a 
divine principle, from Love which reigns in the 
heart. It is for this that it is said, Aly so?t, give 
Me thy heart (Prov. xxiii. 26). It is the Temple 
of God where He desires to dwell (i Cor. 
vi. 19). 

7. Let us not wonder, then, if so many per- 
sons that reason well, that even try to put in 
practice what they know by the w^ay of reasoning, 
do nevertheless make such small progress in 



The Tnte Wisdom 47 



virtue, notwithstanding all the trouble it costs 
them. If they are sincere, they will be obliged 
to own that they have not so much as got the 
better of one single vice or passion all their life 
long, with all their efforts. And if they fancy 
that they have overcome them, are become great 
philosophers, and have put all things under 
their feet ; observe them narrowly, and you shall 
find that they are full of the love of themselves, 
of a secret pride and elevation, and of self-com- 
placency, w^hich is so much the more dangerous 
as it lies concealed under a fair outside, adorned 
with apparent virtues. These vices of the mind 
render us so much the more despicable in the 
sight of God ; for nothing is more contrary to 
him than self-love and self-complacency, these 
being the root of that corruption of sin that has 
infected us. 

8. It is Love^ then, that makes us Christians ; 
it is Love which gives us the Christian virtues, 
and above all things Jmmility^ which makes us 
contemptible in our own eyes, puts us in the 
place that belongs to us, annihilates us as Jesus 
Christ annihilated Himself : as, on the contrary, 
knowledge puffeth up. 

9. Experience shows, that persons of great 
knowledge and learning are much more difficult 



48 The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

to be converted than the simple. St. Paul 
needed that God should employ a glorious light 
that might throw him to the ground, and strike 
him blind, in order to convert him, whereas 
sinners and publicans go after Jesus at this 
single word, Follow Me. It works such a 
powerful effect in their hearts, that they immedi- 
ately forsake all — their father, their barque, their 
whole business, and follow Him, without reflect- 
ing or reasoning upon the duty and obligations 
of natural love towards their parents, without 
bestowing a thought upon the disorder they 
bring upon their affairs in abandoning them all 
of a sudden, throwing up their profession, the 
only means they had of earning their bread law- 
fully. And they act thus at the bare Word of a 
Man that is passing by, who is unknown to them, 
and has neither authority nor credit ! At the 
bare Word^ I say, of this Passenger, who says to 
them, Follow Me, they abandon all and go after 
this Man, mean and despicable in the eyes of 
the world. O holy apostles, give me leave to 
say, that here is a very extravagant conduct, and 
contrary to everything that reason, good sense, 
morality, and natural duty dictate to us. 

10. All this is true; but you see here what 
the Divine Love is able to do, and actually does. 



The True Wisdom 



49 



Love possesses itself of our hearts. A bare 
word uttered by the same Love^ which is the 
eternal Word^ the Word of God, which is God 
Himself, Who conceals Himself under the cover 
of a simple man like unto us ; this Word^ I say, 
penetrates so profoundly into our hearts, that it 
kindles in them instantly so great a flame, a 
love so pure and so single, that we must yield 
to the passion that captivates us, and unavoid- 
ably follow Him Who calls us, and Who here- 
after becomes the only object * of our love. 
Behold the excesses which the Divine Love 
makes its votaries to be guilty of, those hearts 
whom it seizes. O Divine Love, how many 
millions of hearts hast Thou captivated in this 
manner ! Without reasoning, without hesitating, 
they become Thy captives. Thou art always the 
same, and dost now operate no less powerfully 
than formerly, in those simple hearts that are 
willing to receive Thee, and yield to the charms 
of Thy Divine attractions ; and though Thou dost 
not make them perform such shining actions as 
those of Thy holy apostles, yet so it is that the 
Divine Love always produces the same effect in 
the hearts whom it seizes. It makes them count 
all other things as dung that they may %vin 
Christ, Who is that very Love : their conduct 



50 Tlie Xeiu Life in CJirist Jesiis 

often goes beyond the limits which human 
reason prescribes. 

II. Very often. Love I Thou makest Thy 
lovers to be looked upon as mean and des- 
picable in the eyes of ^"i^e. that govern 
themselves by their rea? :::. h::::'ving none other 
than rational motives. Therefore it is, O Lord, 
that Thou sayest. / tha?ik TJne, Father, that 
Thou Jiast /lid f^::^: fro'/n the u'ise a7id 

prudefity and hast revealed the?n wnto babes, to 
the simple oneS; that know nothing but to love 
and obey, and submit themselves like children. 
These have the dispositions requisite to receive 
the spirit of rrace into their hearts : and though 
they appear v-irhour sj'irit. and without conduct 
or wisdom in the eyes of the wise, who are full 
of themselves and their own sufficiency, do but 
wait a Httle, and you shall see that the love of 
God seizing their hearts, shah fill them in due 
time, when it shall have made itself the entire 
master and peaceable possessor of them. He 
will hil them, I say. with the life of His love, 
which by its warmth will quicken those hearts, 
regulate all their affections, enlighten the under- 
standing with its Divine light, communicate to 
it the true knowledge and wisdom that comes 
from above, and will not suffer that soul to 



The True Wisdom 51 



want either prudence or address for everything 
which He designs it for. For the wise man 
saith, that having asked nothing of God but an 
humble, pHant, and tractable heart, wisdom was 
given him ; and says he. All tJwigs zuere give?i 
me with it (Wisd. vii. 12). Thus it. always 
happeneth to those that follow Thy pleasure, O 
Divine Love, without restraint, without reflection 
or precaution ; they leave all, they lose all, and 
find all again in Thee, O Divine Saviour, with 
interest, and without any law but that of Love, 

12. I stop short, it arrests my words, it charms 
me — one must experience it, and to such ex- 
perience I must refer you. He that desires and 
aspires after this Divine Love shall attain 
thereto, and find by his experience that this 
passion surpasses reason, sets the man to rights, 
and banishes all that disorder with which sin 
hath poisoned him. 



CHAPTER V 



THE DIVINE LIGHT 
How Jesus Christ enlightenetli the heart by Faith. 

The Word of God knocks at the heart ; employs no rea- 
soning to convince the understanding — God requires 
faith, which charity operates, and then enlightens the 
understanding — The simple can love, though they 
know not how to reason. 

"Behold I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear 
My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him, and he with jNIe " (Rev. iii. 20). 

I. It is at the heart, then, that the Word of God 
knocks ; it is the heart that it would gain ; for 
when that is overcome, the whole man is con- 
quered. This is why our most adorable Saviour, 
in the instructions He gives us, doth not employ 
much reasoning to convince the understanding 
of the truth and equity of His doctrine. He 
lays before us the principal truths of Christianity 
very simply ; though they are so strongly repug- 
52 



TJie Divine Light 



53 



nant to reason and to nature, He employs no 
reasoning to induce men to believe Him. When 
He proposes to Nicodemus the necessity of re- 
generation, and assures him that it is impossible 
to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven without 
it, He uses no arguments to gain his belief ; all 
He says seems more hkely to discourage than 
to convince. When He likewise proposes the 
necessity of forsaking all, if we would be His 
disciples. He does just the same ; He delivers 
these great truths dryly, without demonstrating 
them. When He speaks in the sixth chapter of 
St. John of the necessity of eating His flesh and 
drinking His blood if we would have eternal 
life, He does not explain this grand paradox 
and dark riddle for human reason : He is not at 
the pains to call back those who, being shocked 
at that proposition, are offended and leave Him; 
on the contrary, He asks His disciples // t/iey 
will go away ? All He says on that head is : T/ie 
words that I speak tinto you are Spirit and Life ; 
it is the Spirit that quickeneth^ the flesh profiteth 
nothing. Words that are as obscure and incom- 
prehensible to human reason as our Saviour's 
proposition of eating His flesh and drinking 
His blood ; which nevertheless are not less real 
and true. 



54 ^-The New Life in Christ Jesiis 

2. By this we see, that what God justly re- 
quires of us is, that we submit our own spirit and 
reason to His precepts ; that notwithstanding the 
repugnancy which our spirit finds therein, we 
beheve Him, and trust ourselves to Him, that 
He speaks the truth. This is what love alone 
produces ; for it is impossible to believe what 
He tells us, when it surpasses or shocks our 
comprehension, if love, and the confidence 
we repose in Him, do not engage us to believe 
it ; love, I say, and the confidence which we 
have in Him, Who proposes what shocks us and 
what we do not comprehend. It is the love 
of God, then, luJiich He sheds abroad i?i our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost (Rom. v.), that operates 
this faith, this confidence, and engages us to 
beheve and submit to what Jesus Christ tells us 
without reasoning, and to embrace, and receive 
His words with submission. Then, having given 
Him a proof of our love. He afterwards enlight- 
eneth our understanding by that Divine light 
which issues forth and diffuses itself from the 
fire of the love of God (residing in our heart) 
upon our understanding ; illuminates it, and 
discovers to it the Divine mysteries ; makes us 
know how just, how reasonable and upright the 
conduct of God is towards us, how advantageous 



The Divine Light 



55 



it is to submit to Him, to abandon ourselves 
to Him blindly, and to believe and follow 
Him. 

3. The true light then issues from the heart, 
or from the inmost depth of the soul, where 
the Divine sun abides which must enlighten the 
understanding. It is from this place, where 
God makes His abode, that He darts His rays 
upon the understanding, which He illuminates. 
It is this heart, then, that we must give to Him, 
that He may become absolute master and 
possessor thereof, if we would have our under- 
standing enlightened with the true hght that 
discovers Divine things. Without this, and by 
no other means, shall man ever attain to the 
true light. Therefore it is that God always 
demands the heart. David says (Ps. xxxiv.) : 
Taste and see that the Lord is good. This is 
turning upside down the ordinary way that man 
goes to work : he must first see a thing, examine 
whether it is good, and after he is satisfied that 
it is so, he tastes it. But here we are told to 
taste first, and then to see ; and experience 
convinces us that thus it comes to pass. God 
makes Himself to be tasted by the heart ; He 
draws it, makes it taste His goodness and His 
love ; and if it abandons itself to Him, and 



56 TJie Neiv Life in Christ Jesits 

follows the relish and attraction, though it be 
indistinct and dark as yet for the understanding, 
then it is enlightened by the effect which that 
relish hath wTOught within us. 

4, This is the reason why w^e see simple and 
ignorant persons all flaming and filled with the 
love of God, who are submissive and obedient, 
who testify by their life and conduct the violence 
and purity of the Divine Love which inflames 
them; who nevertheless are incapable of 
reasoning upon the cause of their love, or 
assigning a reason, or making a clear description 
of their state and conduct. A reasoner w^ould 
easily embarrass them ; all the reason they can 
assign for themselves is, that they love and 
believe Him in Whom they have confided, 
following the attraction which inclines their 
heart. Without hesitating, without reasoning, 
they run after Him Who has made Himself the 
conqueror of their hearts. Others, on the con- 
trary, spend their lives in reaso7iing upon the 
justice and equity of living Christianity, the 
great harmony there is between reason and the 
morals of the Gospel, and remain void of the 
life of God. Their heart continues cold, and 
they sufficiently discover that it is still full of 
the love of the world, of the creatures and of 



The Divine Light 57 

themselves ; that their affections are earthly, by 
reason of the attachment, the care and concern 
they have about these things, and the pleasure 
and satisfaction which they find and seek in 
them. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE LOVE OF GOD 
Foundation of prayers and intercessions for souls. 
I. The Son of God is His Love; He is not 
a God separate and distinct from the Father, 
He is His Love, His Delight; and it is by this 
Love that He produces and creates all things. 
It is the property of love to desire to com= 
municate itself : God has communicated and 
doth communicate Himself by His Love ; this 
is His production or His Son: what He desires, 
what this Love demands. He always grants and 
does, for it is His will; and therefore our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Love of God manifested in the 
flesh, saith: I knozu that Thou Jiearest me always 
(John xi. 42). Everything that Love demands it 
obtains. All that they demand in whom the 
Spirit of Jesus Christ dwelleth, and is become 
their life, they also obtain ; for it is the love of 
God that demands it. Here is the foundation 

58 



The Love of God 59 

of all prayers and intercessions, and what in my 
opinion gives them their value. The Love of 
God desires to assist, to do good, to com- 
municate itself to such and such a creature ; it 
employs such and such means in order to prepare 
him for being united to Himself j it desires his 
conversion ; thus it wishes this, it prays for it in 
a heart that is His, w^here He dwells and is 
become Master and sovereign Lord. He moves 
and excites it to pray for such and such an 
one, in certain occasions and circumstances, and 
these prayers are infallibly heard ; for it is God 
Himself, it is His Love that makes them, that 
desires these things and fulfils them. Such a 
soul neither w^ill nor can pray, nor desire, nor 
demand anything, till it is excited and moved 
by this principle : it is forbidden every other 
thing as proceeding from its own will and 
choice. Thus, then, it is that it prays for every- 
thing for which it is moved to pray ; for men in 
general, and for particular persons. 

2. Moreover, when the same Love of God 
moves it to pray for the souls that are in a state 
of purification, these sensibly feel the effect of 
it, either with regard to their greater progress 
in purification, or to their consummation ; or in 
order to their receiving some consolation and 



6o The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

strength as their needs shall require, or in order 
to support them amidst some temptation and 
notable assault with which the wicked spirits, 
by Divine permission, surprise them ; it is still 
the same Love of God which operates all in all, 
and which is always heard. It is the same Love 
which never will cease to work, till it has brought 
back all the creatures which it has made, into 
the same blessed state of obedience, of absolute 
and entire dependence on their Creator, in which 
it formed and created them happy. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE BREAD OF LIFE 

Of communion in spirit and reality. 

Of eating the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ — We 
thereby come to be united with Him — We are trained 
thereto, not by disputing and reasoning, but by desire, 
faith, and experience. 

I. My God, Thou art like the air ; Thou suffer- 
est no void. Thou immediately fillest the place 
wherever it is found. Thou art also on this 
account our bread and our nourishment ; for as 
our stomachs are no sooner empty, but they 
must be again filled with food, so also our souls 
must be filled by Thee as their proper nourish- 
ment, without which we pine away, languish, 
and die. Therefore it is that Thou hast said : 
Thou art the Bread of God ivhich cometh doivn 
from Heaven^ a?id giveth life imto the world 
(John vi.). O God, who could believe it, if Thou 

hadst not said it, and if we did not find by 
6i 



62 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

experience that in effect, in reality and truth, 
Thou, O Jesus, art the Bread and Meat which 
nourishes us ? Admirable mystery ! What a 
high favour ! It is incomprehensible. One 
must be mute, and ravished with admiration, 
that Thou honourest man with such a signal 
benefit. 

2. Why do we amuse ourselves in disputing 
and reasoning how this is done, desiring to 
comprehend it by human reason ? Ah, why 
do we not rather make haste eagerly to receive 
this meat which is Thyself, this Bread from 
Heaven, by believing Thee, and opening the 
mouth of the soul, with a sincere desire to be 
nourished by Thee, and to receive without 
reasoning this celestial food which Thou 
presentest? How quickly should we feel the 
admirable effects it produces ! Open thy ?nouth 
mid I will fill it (Ps. Ixxxi. lo). All that Thou 
expectest from us is, that we open the mouth 
of our soul, and do not obstinately keep it 
shut against Thee, and inaccessible to those 
infinite benefits which Thou presentest to us ; 
that we cease to fill ourselves with the husks 
which the swine feed upon, that we may eat 
the heavenly bread and flesh which is offered 
to us by Jesus Christ Himself, yea, which is 



The Bread of Life 



63 



Himself. I mean that we cease to fill our souls, 
our desires, our affections, to bestow our love 
on the vain and transitory things of this world : 
things whereof God has indeed given us the 
use for the sustenance of our animal or svrinish 
body, which is nourished and maintained by 
them. But this is not what ought to be the 
nourishment of our souls, which are of quite 
another nature, and whereof God Himself 
ought to be the Food. 

3. In order, then, to be partakers of this 
ineffable Grace, we need only open our mouths, 
present ourselves before Him, that He Himselt 
may accomplish and operate what He hath 
promised us in His Word, without troubling 
ourselves about anything else, but to believe 
that what He hath promised He will infallibly 
accomplish by His omnipotence, wisdom, and 
love. We should desire that He may captivate 
to Himself all our desires and affections, nay, all 
our love : for how should we reserve any share of 
it, since that cannot be done consistently with 
the laws of love ? What shadow of reason can 
be assigned, that a poor pitiful creature, which is 
but a nothing, a flea, as David says (i Sam. 
xxiv. 15), should reserve any share of its little 
capacity from a God Who is all, Who fills all by 



64 TJie Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

His immensity, and humbles Himself so far as 
to become the food, the Hfe, and the all of this 
little despicable creature ? There would be in 
this conduct neither reason nor proportion. 
Everybody may comprehend this. Let us give 
Him all then ; yet this is nothing in comparison 
of what is His. Do you ask how that is to be 
done ? If you desire it, you shall learn it : this 
holy Master is the true teacher. Say to Him : 
My Saviour, I understand nothing, I compre- 
hend nothing in this mystery " ; He will teach 
it to you and perform it in you. The question 
is not to kno-w^ but to have : if you have it, and 
possess it, you will know it perfectly. When 
a man possesses a treasure, he is much more 
contented than when he heard tell of it, and 
formed to himself an idea of it : this is fiction, 
the other reality. Let us go then to Jesus, and 
He will teach us all experimentally. He is in 
us, in our heart ; let us not seek Him anywhere 
else ; He resides there ; it is His empire ; 
thither we must go in order to find Him, and 
if you do not comprehend this secret, pray 
Him to teach it you. He will do it, for He hath 
said, / stand at the door (as what other door 
than the heart ?), and Jznock : if any man will 



The Bread of Life 65 

hear Aly voice, and open to Afe, I luili come in to 
him, and sup with him, and he with Me (Rev. 
iii. 20). Here is the true communion which 
causes the union of the soul with its God. O 
wonder of God ! 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE NECESSITY OF REDEMPTION 

Of Jesus Christ and the Fall of Adam, 

God alone is able to enlighten the understanding — Jesus 
Christ took a glorious body of Adam, and afterwards 
that of misery — Why?— Of the Fall of Adam — Of the 
spirit lost by the Fall — For what end Jesus Christ 
came clothed with our misery. 

I. O MY God, my Saviour, Thou indeed art 
alone the true light that enlighteneth : without 
Thee we are in darkness, and walk therein at 
noon-day. I have all my life long read Thy 
Holy Scriptures which testify of Thee, but have 
been so slow of understanding that I have not 
comprehended them. It is Thou alone, O 
eternal Word, that givest the understanding of 
them; it is Thou alone that revealest both 
Thyself and Thy eternal Father. It is in vain 
that the human spirit endeavoureth to under- 
stand Thy Scriptures by studying them with 

application and care; they are nothing but vain 
66 



The Necessity of Redemption 67 

ideas, images, and phantoms, which are formed 
in our imagination, and have no reahty. This 
is plain, since with all their reading and medi- 
tation many remain strangers to Thee, slaves to 
their passions, and always full of themselves. 

2. It is now I understand Thy words, O my 
adorable Saviour: No man knoweth the Sojt 
save the Father^ a?id he to whom He hath bee7i 
pleased to reveal Him, It is Thou alone that 
doest it out of pure grace: it is to Thee, O 
Divine Son ! that we must come as Thou callest 
us thereto. At present Thy subhme words are 
full of life and light in my soul : He that hath 
see?i Me hath seen My Father ; for I and the 
Father are 0?ie (John xii. 45 and x. 9). Yes, 
truly. You are One and the same God Whom 
we adore. He that honoureth 7iot the Son 
honoureth ?iot the Father that sent Him (John 
v. 23). For in Him dwelleth all the f nines s of 
the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9), as saith Thy 
holy apostle, and Thou sayest : If a man love 
Me, he will keep Aly words : and My Father will 
love him^ and We will come u?ito him, and make 
Our abode with him (John xiv. 23). 

3. It was not enough then, O Love incon- 
ceivable, that Thou madest man after Thy 
image and likeness, as a little God according to 



68 Tlie Nezu Life in Clirist Jcsiis 

the spiritual man; that Thou mightest unite 
Thyself to him, and make him one and the 
same Spirit with Thee, O my God I uniting him 
to Thee in spirit as Thy spouse: but Thou art 
hkewise pleased, in order to make the union 
bear some proportion, as far as can be between 
the Creator and the creature, to humble Thy- 
self and to become a creature, to clothe Thyself 
with our human nature, to assume a rational 
man, and to take unto Thee a material body 
like unto ours, in order to resemble man, and 
to dwell in him in Thy fulness, by making his 
noblest part the interior man. 

4. O Love! this was not enough: Thou ac= 
companiest us in our greatest misery, and in the 
deplorable state into which our disobedience 
hath reduced us. Thou takest in Thy appointed 
time, our greatest miseries upon Thee : Thou 
clothest Thyself with our sinful and suffering flesh, 
in order tosufterand die amidst the bitterest pains 
and the greatest ignominy, and all this to rescue 
us from that unparalleled misery into which we 
had plunged ourselves by our rebellion. Thou 
comest by Thy death to take off the sentence of 
death pronounced and executed the moment of 
the fall of our first father : /// the day iJiou cat^st 
of the fridt of the tree of k?wwledge of good and 



TJie Necessity of Redeviptioii 69 

evil^ thoii shah die the death (Gen. ii. 17). This 
sentence regards us: for a human being no sooner 
falls into himself, into his selfness, than the 
heavenly, the spiritual man loses his empire in him, 
is dethroned, and man is separated from Thee : 
he becomes the slave of Satan, who assumes 
the government of the two men, or parts of the 
terrestrial man, that remain with him ; man 
abides without spirit, and dead unto God. 
Thou comest then, O my Saviour, to suffer and 
die, in order to deliver thy captives and rebels 
from the empire of Satan ; Thou comest, by the 
effusion of Thy blood, to restore Thy image, and 
to quicken again into a new life those men dead 
by their disobedience, as many of them as shall 
be willing to receive Thee. 

5. The moment Adam disobeyed his God, he 
fell into death, God withdrawing the Divine man 
which He had breathed into His nostrils at his 
creation ; for it was not the animal hfe that He 
breathed into his nostrils, since God is Spirit, 
and communicated to Adam His spirit by His 
breathing. This was the spiritual man, of the 
same nature with God, and His image, seeing 
we are partakers of t/ie Div uie Nature (2 Pet. 1. 
4). The Almighty left Adam his body, his 
mind, and his understanding; but this sovereign. 



7o Tlie Neiu Life in Christ Jesus 

this Divine inward man was taken away from 
him, and God resumed it, according as it is said: 
The body 7'etiiriis to the earth whence it came 
(Eccles. xii. 9), as to its mother, and thereby 
draws the soul into earthly and carnal affections, 
and the spirit returns to God Who gave it. This 
is what hath come to pass by that death which is 
operated by sin, and is the effect of it. 

6. Here then is poor Adam, destitute of the 
Divine spirit, by rebelling, and discontinuing his 
union with that Divine spirit by which he was 
united to God Himself, and was in His com- 
munion, from which he tears himself, and be- 
comes proprietor of himself. Instead of the 
Divine man of which he was stripped, he was 
that moment clothed with this gross body of 
death and rottenness, which we carry about 
us, of which he was immediately ashamed, and 
covered with it as with a grave or coffin, in 
which he hes as it were buried ; for in reahty 
this body and this life is nothing else. He was 
driven out of the Paradise of Glory, and made 
to wander in exile and misery, that he might there- 
in sensibly experience with pain and sorrow the 
miseries to which he is reduced. O ! how is it 
possible that in this deplorable state we should 
still seek after our satisfaction and gratifications. 



The Necessity of Redemption 71 

and make our paradise of the place of banish- 
ment, of our prison and our grave; which is 
however what hath come to pass ? We thereby 
infinitely increase our misery, and render our 
conversion still more difficult. But, alas ! sin 
hath blinded us, and robbed us of the view of 
that glorious state whence we are fallen : we 
glory and take pleasure in our chains and our 
misery, and make a delight of that life w^hich 
ought rather to be called a real death. 

7. But to as many as 7'eceive Thee^ O my 
Saviour, Thoic gives t the power to become the 
children of God^ even to them that believe in Thy 
Name (John i. 12), to those that do not reject 
Thee. Thou art come to offer Thyself unto 
us, clothed with our misery, by taking the 
same organs and gross faculties as we have, and 
covering Thyself, O eternal Word, with the same 
grave and mortal body, which we carry about 
with us for our punishment. Thou comest in 
this body of sin, to make Thyself communicable 
to us : clothed with all our misery. Thou 
offerest Thyself unto us as our Saviour and 
Deliverer. Thou offerest to rescue us from the 
deplorable captivity wherein we are, and to 
restore us the privilege of being made children 
of God. Thou art willing to re-establish, to 



72 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

advance and put us again in the state wherein 
Thou didst create us, nay, with additional glory, 
if we will but follow Thee ; go unto Thee Who 
callest us so tenderly and affectionately; take 
up our cross and come after Thee, Who out 
of love to us didst charge Thyself with the 
heaviest, and didst voluntarily bear that misery 
to which we are necessarily subjected in this 
mortal life. Thou requirest only that we should 
not make our captivity a scene of delights and 
pleasures; that we return unto Thee and depend 
upon Thee ; that we give back our hearts and 
affections to Thee, which we have torn from 
Thee, and bestowed on mean, vile creatures, and 
ourselves ; that we submit to Thy yoke : and 
then Thou wilt heal our diseases and restore us 
again. 

8. This is the grace which Thou hast pur- 
chased for us, O my Saviour, by descending 
from Thy glory into our misery. For how should 
we have had access to Thee — to Thy divinity, 
whence we have fallen, and as far removed as 
Heaven is from earth — if Thou hadst not de- 
scended to us, and made Thyself like unto us, 
that Thou mightest take us by the hand, and 
lead us back on high into Thy divinity? This 
is what Thou doest, O Lord ! For as soon as 



The Necessity of Redemption 73 

the sinner is converted, and returns towards 
Thee, and hstens to Thy voice which recalls him 
from his wandering, immediately Thou takest 
him by the hand, and puttest him in the way 
which leadeth unto life. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE TWO LIVES 

Difference between the life of grace and the life of 
nature — By the Fall the Spirit is lost — We recover it 
by conversion — Impenitent men lead an animal or 
sensual life — Rational men live the life of nature, and 
are far from regeneration, which is preceded by a 
cruel death. 

I. We have then (in the foregoing chapter) man 
entire, as God had created him after His image 
and likeness, as it were the picture of the 
Divinity — which is what these words do signify 
— but a picture animated and living. We have 
seen how by his turning away from God, in 
which his fall consisted, he lost the most noble 
part of himself, the spiritual and Divine man, 
which St. Paul calls the spirit ; — to which he 
died, as the same apostle writes to the Christians, 
speaking of the state they were in before their 
conversion : You hath He quickeited ivho were 
dead in trespasses and si?is (Eph. ii. i). He 
74 



The Two Lives 



75 



quickened them by restoring to them the Divine 
Hfe, which is that spirit, even the new creature. 

2. Thus in our natural state, we have not in 
us that Hfe of God, as St. Paul also saith of the 
Gentiles, that is, of all men in their state of 
impenitence : They aj'c alienated from the life of 
God (Eph. iv. 1 8). They live only an animal 
life in the sensual man. The greater part of 
men are slaves of that life, seek only to gratify 
their sensual appetites and passions, after a 
manner a thousand times worse than the brute 
beasts, wallowing in the gratification which they 
endeavour to give immoderately to their brutish 
senses, and ignorant of any other life. 

3. i\nd those that are more reasonable, and 
under some restraint, live only in the natural 
man. These are they whom we call wise men : 
they correct by the rational man that other 
grosser man (more or less) ; they do not leave 
him the entire sway and dominion over them : 
they are addicted to the more refined passions, 
which they call the passions of the mind, that 
belong to the natural man ; they are addicted, 
those I say that are the most refined, to the 
human arts and sciences ; they become inge- 
nious men, men of wisdom and virtue. 

4. Such men can appear most virtuous and 



76 The New Life t?i Christ Jesus 

wise, in so much that they may, according 
to their degree of virtue, pass for very good 
Christians, though they are not as yet in any 
measure converted ; — their virtues being merely 
human. They acknowledge and practise the 
doctrines and ceremonies established in the 
Christian religion, which they profess externally, 
and therein behave themselves religiously. They 
lack nothing, either in their own eyes or in the 
eyes of others, that are like themselves. They 
know no other Christianity, nor other Christians. 
For as to the sallies of vices and passions which 
in these men are most vigorous and lively—and 
which often put forth their fruits outwardly, what- 
ever care they take to conceal them, by endea- 
vouring constantly to save appearances — these 
are excused, and covered with the name of 
human weaknesses. But God frequently per- 
mits those men that appear the most virtuous, 
to commit such gross faults, that they sufficiently 
discover that fund of corruption and rottenness 
which they are at such pains to conceal, 

5. They have, moreover, at least one favourite 
passion that rides and governs them, which 
those that know them intimately do sufficiently 
discover. And God permits this in order to 
undeceive them and others also, and to justify 



The Tzuo Lives 



77 



Himself, and to make appear that He alone 
can make true Christians who have the reality 
of virtue in them, and not barely false appear- 
ances of it on the outside. 

6. Yet so great is the degeneracy, that among 
the learned, and people of the most decent 
appearances, nothing more perfect is known : 
they even take this for a state of regeneration. 
The war which these persons wage by their 
own strength in stifling and suppressing passions 
manifestly gross and criminal, they take for the 
Christian warfare ; which nevertheless if you 
narrowly observe it, is nothing but a very pitiful 
conflict, which has no other aim but to present 
you with the life of an honest heathen exempt 
from gross vices. Here all this labour ter- 
minates ! And if, together with this, the out- 
ward ceremonies of religion are practised, you 
forsooth see an accomplished Christian. The 
merits of Jesus Christ will supply all deficiencies : 
men neither know nor desire any more. 

7. O how difficult it is for such persons to 
enter into a true conversion ! But if they will 
not flatter themselves continually, and will give 
ear a little to the voice of conscience, by taking 
a little heed to their conduct, and examining it 
before God, they will soon be convinced of the 



78 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

dangerous and delusive state they are in. And 
if they are faithful to that voice, and do not 
stifle It by their false and flattering reasonings, 
they will soon be put, by the admonitions of 
that faithful conscience, into the way and begin- 
ning of a true conversion, into a more serious 
and assiduous conflict against the hidden vices 
which that conscience will discover to them 
more and more, according to their fidelity in 
following its motions : until it lead them into a 
more profound knowledge of themselves, and 
draw down the Divine light of luminous faith 
into their soul, which enlightens and enriches 
that soul with virtues and gifts j in so much 
that many persons of this degree pass for great 
saints, though in the meantime they have not 
yet attained to the new birth. 

8. For in this state man is still in himself, 
though filled with gifts and graces in his soul, 
which he still possesses in selfness, and has not 
yet lost, which however is necessary, according 
to that saying of Jesus Christ : He that losetJi his 
life shall find it (Matt. x. 39). Wherein, then, 
consists this life ? Why, as I have already fully 
explained, when the time is come that God, 
by a secret attraction in the soul, invites man to 
forsake his nature and its gifts, showing him the 



The Tzvo Lives 



79 



impurity of them, and the mixture of selfness 
which hinders it from being united to God ; 
then he sacrifices all these things as well as his 
own nature to that God Who attracts him to 
Himself : he suffers himself to be stripped of all 
by the attraction of the Holy Ghost; and what 
we call the Spiritual and New I\Ian is created 
again by Jesus Christ. He soon manifests Him- 
self (if we are faithful in suffering ourselves to be 
stripped and separated from our sinful nature), 
according to all the extent of the attraction of 
the Holy Spirit which grows and resumes vigour 
and authority over us according as we forsake 
and lose our sinful nature, suffering it to be 
destroyed and ourselves to be separated from it. 
'Tis only by the light of the Spirit that we 
plainly discover the necessity of this separation 
from our sinful nature over which we exercise 
proprietorship, to the end that by forsaking it 
the new man may again resume his right, and 
that by receiving the life of Jesus Christ He 
may reign in us and subject this nature to Him- 
self. For we are purified, as I have said, by 
the death and destruction of this selfness which 
we lose, and which is no more to be found in 
this new life of the Spirit which at present 
governs our new and divine nature as its subject, 



8o The Nezu Life in Christ Jesus 

and which by the Ufe of the Spirit now com- 
municated to it receives an hundredfold for 
what it has lost, and likewise finds itself again, 
according to what our Saviour says, but in God, 
and for Him only. He then that shall lose the 
life of his nature shall find it in life eternal, even 
in this life. Amen, Jesus ! Thy words are true 
and Truth itself. 



CHAPTER X 



THE SPIRIT OF GRACE 
Of the natural and rational life. 

Of the appearance of virtue i^. rational men — They falsely 
apply to themselves the merits of Jesus Christ, which 
are death for the old Adam — Regeneration is not the 
work of reasoning — The wise make a God of reason ; 
they define man a rational animal — Reason cor- 
rupted by the Fall ; cannot give the light of the Holy 
Spirit ; hath only that of nature — That of the Holy 
Spirit springs from regeneration, which the wise of 
this world have not. 

I. We have observed in the foregoing chapter, 
speaking of men rational and virtuous in them- 
selves, that their labour terminates in presenting 
us with some appearance of superficial virtue, 
and abstaining from the grosser vices for which 
the honest heathens had a horror ; excusing and 
palliating, moreover, their corrupt nature, which 
nevertheless discovers itself by the poisonous 
fruits it sends forth outwardly, in spite of all the 

care they take to stifle them ; they cover these, 
8 1 G 



82 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

I say, with the name of human infirmity, which 
serves for an excuse, and tell us that the merits 
of Jesus Christ will supply what is wanting. 
They will needs apply these merits as a cover for 
the rotten sepulchre of the old man, to hide 
and excuse his corruption ; and thus by a false 
application of these same merits, they flutter 
themselves to obtain salvation in this state. 

2. But in reahty this is to have a very false 
notion of the merits of Jesus Christ, which are 
of no service to us nor of any other value for 
us, but to exterminate and put to death the old 
man. This is what He hath merited for us by 
His death, namely, to have the right to raise 
us again by His Spirit, that is, His blood, which 
is applied to us in order to work the work of 
Regeneration, as we have here explained it. Now 
without this Regeneration, /. e, if we do not give 
up ourselves to Him, that He may change and 
renew us, and crucify the old man, the man of 
sin in us, we have no share in His sufferings, nor 
in the reconciliation which He hath purchased 
for us ; since we will not suffer Him to operate 
the necessary work for that end ; seeing He came 
to destroy the works of the devil^ that is, self-love, 
the life of the old man, by whose death He 
might restore His own life, the New Man, in us. 



The Spirit of Grace 



83 



Without this all is but extravagance and de- 
lusion of Satan ; I say, all that they tell us 
about the application of the merits of Jesus 
Christ, and the reconciliation we boast of. 

3. This is manifest throughout all the Holy 
Scripture, especially in the Epistles of St. Paul. 
But in reality it is here the learned rationalist 
shows that he understands nothing of the things 
that are spiritual and Divine. And yet this is 
the idea our divines give us, who have no other 
light nor knowledge but that which reason 
affords them ; they know none other. And I 
remember, that talking one day to a very learned 
and noted divine, eminent for his wisdom about 
the operation of the Spirit of God in us, he told 
me that what I called the Hght of the Holy 
Spirit was nothing else but the light of reason ; 
which surprised me much. 

4. In order to clear up and explain this 
matter, it is necessary to see what it is that 
we call reason in man. This is so much the 
more needful, as reason at present is the grand 
idol and the god whom the wisest and most 
judicious men do adore ; knowing nothing more 
noble in man, since it is by this faculty that 
they distinguish him from the brute beasts, 
saying, that man is a rational creature. 



84 Tlie Neiu Life in CJirist Jesus 

5. Here is, in my opinion, a very lame de- 
finition : but alas ! too true : for in his fallen 
state, he is indeed only rational ; being but dead, 
a stranger to the Divine Life, and without the 
Spirit. In this state, I say, the definition mav 
take place : and still better, if we say that man 
is a creature endued with a reason more en- 
lightened and more refined than that of the 
beasts, who show us by their operations that 
they are not quite destitute of it. provided we 
do not blind our eyes by false and subtle 
reasonings, by a vain philosophy that darkens 
and perplexes the mind, and is in reality 
ridiculous. For whence comes it, for example, 
that a dog or other animal hath the faculty 
of suffering itself to be trained and disciplined 
by man? If we judge according to what 
is obvious and plain before our eyes, is 
not this a demonstration of reasoning in the 
beasts? But vain philosophy hurries us blind- 
fold from one extravagance into another, to 
which we give the name of wisdom and 
learning. 

6. Let us see, then, where reason has its seat. 
I say that reason, or reasoning, is an operation 
of the understanding, or its fruit aiid produc- 
tion, which reasoneth u}ion the subject which 



Tlie Spwit of Grace 85 



the light of the understanding presenteth, and 
this determines and carries the will to what it 
finds reasonable. This is all well, provided the 
understanding, where images and ideas do pre- 
sent themselves, were itself enlightened by the 
spiritual man, the inward and Divine man, which 
is the image of God, Jesus Christ in us, terms 
that all signify the same thing. This Divine 
man, which, as we have already observed, was 
lost by the Fall, ought to be sovereign Lord and 
King of the understanding, and to communicate 
his light thereto, as the moon and other planets 
receive theirs from the sun. But having lost this 
Divine man, that is, the Spirit, our understand- 
ing, which is the eye of the soul, is obscured 
with darkness, and has no light left but what 
is communicated to it by the corrupt under- 
standing. 

7. Therefore it is that St. Paul saith (Col. i. 
21): You that 2i'e?'e so met line alienated and enemies 
in your minds by luicked luorks. Thus the corrupt 
understanding is very far from being, or giving 
us, the supernatural light of the Holy Spirit ; 
since in order to be made capable of receiving 
that, the new birth of the new man, created 
according to God in righteousness and true 
holiness, must necessarily precede. While this 



86 The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

is not operated and brought to pass in us, we 
are still strangers to God, notwithstanding all 
our learning in the letter of the Holy Scripture, 
which is only speculative and unfruitful, and 
brings no change on the heart or the affections. 
This is plain, since the most learned, the best 
reasoners and theorists, are not the greatest 
saints, nor the most disengaged from them- 
selves, from their passions, and the riches of 
this world; all which evidently shows the in- 
sufficiency of reason to operate a real con- 
version. 

8. It is only the light of his human under- 
standing, then, that enlighteneth man in his 
corrupt state. Hence proceeds the multitude 
of false reasonings, their deceit and subtilty to 
perplex and obscure the truth ; the contradiction 
and uncertainty, the little reality in practice that 
is to be found among those who exalt it so 
highly, and make their God of it : reasonings 
which cannot hinder the disorderly passions of 
pride, ambition, avarice, and sensuality from 
getting the better of practice, in those who make 
so great a show in this fine reason and its 
excellency. Reason, I say, is more and more 
corrupted and darkened by the ascendent which 
the above-named passions of attachment to 



The Spirit of Grace 87 

earthly things have got over the present race of 
men. 

9. It is time, then, to seek after another light, 
more sure and more pure : to acknowledge our 
blindness and prejudice, and by true penitence 
and desire of amendment of life, to embrace the 
sure way of renouncing our passions and our- 
selves, as our Lord Jesus Christ hath taught and 
practised Himself, by a life of poverty, denied to 
the pleasures and gratifications of the earthly 
life. This way alone disposes and renders us 
capable of regaining the true Divine light of the 
Holy Spirit : a Hght which the Spiritual jNIan, 
Jesus Christ, will raise up or create again m us. 
He will communicate it to us, and change all 
our affections from earthly into heavenly and 
Divine. 

10. This hght of the Holy Spirit is not then, 
as men imagine, a foreign Hght, a fanatical en- 
thusiasm : it is the life and light of our soul, 
which was given it at creation, and which 
God breathed into man's nostrils. Every other 
life is a foreign life, and the source of that de- 
pravation and corruption which reigns in the 
world. And though this life and light of nature 
make a great show in the world by communicat- 
ing to men their learning, prudence, subtilty of 



88 The Neiv Life i7i CJirist Jesus 

spirit and reasonings, its original, nevertheless, 
is from the spirit of this world, which St. Paul 
saith he had not 7'eceived (i Cor. ii. 12), and 
luhich vmiisheth away. This natural life is the 
only one known by the people of the world, who 
are ignorant of the operation of the Spirit of 
God in them. How virtuous and wise soever 
such men may appear outwardly, how learned 
soever they may be, they are children of this 
world, and strangers to God and to the experi- 
mental and only saving knowledge of Him, 
though they confess Him outwardly, read the 
Holy Scriptures, and practise diligently the 
exercises of the rehgion they profess. 

II. I pray God with all my heart, to discover 
this to them, and He will infallibly do it if they 
desire it, and do not reject the inward admoni- 
tions which the Spirit of Grace never fails to 
vouchsafe them, by disturbing them in their false 
repose. But they must listen thereto, and not 
quench it by the continual distractions, outward 
occupations, and false reasonings which the 
enemy of their salvation suggests to them in 
their understanding, in order to dissipate the fears 
and doubts which the Spirit of Grace raises in 
their conscience, to show and convince them of 
their bad state, and to incite them to seek after 



Tlie Spirit of Grace 89 

God, and by His grace to put themselves in a 
better. The enemy, I say, fearing to lose his 
prey, flatters them in their security ; persuades 
them in their reason that their state is not so 
bad j and that the knocks and calls of the Spirit 
of God at the heart are fancies and imaginations, 
vapours, melancholy, which a man must dissipate 
and seek to divert himself ; that he shall become 
ridiculous, absurd, and unprofitable to his fellow- 
creatures, and lose all honour and reputation, if 
he follows these fantastical imaginations. 

12. Here you see how our corrupt reason, 
that fine thing, is the most proper instrument 
Satan makes use of, by a thousand subtle reason- 
ings and plausible and probable demonstrations. 
He does this to hinder us from opening our hearts 
to the Spirit of Grace, which seeks day and night 
to be admitted into them, in order to save us, 
and bring us back from a course of wandering in 
which we walk with so much assurance. In these 
errors Satan carefully endeavours to keep us, 
that while we presume to be in the way of sal- 
vation, he may lead us on softly into hell, where 
he thus carries millions of men, as it were in 
a coach. May God preserve us from being 
of that number, and make us attentive to His 
voice, which cries from the depths of our hearts : 



90 The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

Awake, thou that steepest, and arise from the dead, 
a?id Christ shatl give thee light (Ephesians v. 
14). Yea, Lord, do Thou awaken the dead by 
Thy omnipotent Word ! Amen, O my Saviour, 
Amen ! 



CHAPTER XI 



THE LIFE OF FAITH 

What it is to live by faith — How profitable and necessary 
it is — The disadvantage of neglecting it — To pray to 
God to teach us this duty. 

I. It is said: The just shall live by faith 
(Rom. i. 17). What is it to live by faith ? It 
is to Uve by confidence and resignation — which 
is produced by love — into the hands of the 
object that one loves, without care, without 
thought of oneself ; because one is so inflamed 
with love, that one can no longer be taken up 
with oneself, nor anything else save the object 
that one loves. There is no more room in all 
the capacity of man, but wliat is filled and 
possessed entirely by its object, which is God, 
Who is alone sufficient to fill it. Yea, He over- 
flows, and passeth beyond it. In order to 
content and satisfy the superabundance of the 
immensity of the God of Love, man, not con- 
91 



92 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

tent with letting himself be filled, must be 
plunged and overwhelmed, drowned and lost 
in the immensity of this God, out of Whom he 
is no longer able to live. O my God, do Thou 
lose us thus in Thee, and then being lost in 
Love, we shall live by faith and resignation. 
O what dost Thou desire more, O my dear 
Jesus ! but that those who are smitten with Thy 
love, whom Thou hast wounded therewith, do 
forget themselves entirely, that they may know 
nothing more but Thee alone? O how safely 
dost Thou conduct them ! It is Thou Thyself 
that takest care of them; and the more they 
forget, and the less they regard themselves, still 
the more securely they advance, without looking 
to the way they walk in. Having their eyes 
fixed on Thee alone^ they travel safely through 
precipices without perceiving them, without 
thinking or taking any notice of them. 

2. O that we knew this secret, and practised 
it incessantly, to have our eye upon God alone ! 
From how many pains and vexations should we 
be exempted, and how securely should we walk ! 
But the moment we regard ourselves, or any 
other thing, we enter into doubting ; fear and 
distrust seize us, and from that time forth we 
forsake the way of faith and resignation. When 



The Life of Faith 93 

we resume ourselves, and determine to conduct 
ourselves by our own reason, then Love, wounded 
and offended at our diffidence, leaves us to our 
own conduct. O Love, do not permit this ! for 
thus it is we part from that child-like confidence 
that engages Thee to take care of us. We have 
too frequently found, that he who saveth his life, 
loseth it in effect (Matt. xvi. 25), and that there 
is no salvation but in abandoning it into Thy 
hands. Thus losing and renouncing it, we not 
only find the soul, but Thyself rather, O my 
God, even Thee Who becomest our soul and 
our all. O Divine Love! do not suffer the 
outrage any more, that we should dishonour 
Thee by regarding any other thing besides 
Thee. Vouchsafe to give us a single eye fixed 
only upon Thee, O Divine Saviour! This is 
the faith, this is the law of true lovers, who do 
nothing but love Thee, adore Thee, and are 
silent, in order to please Thee, and lose them- 
selves incessantly for Thee and in Thee, O 
most holy and divine Jesus, Friend, and Saviour 
and God ! 

3. My God, how happy should we be in 
living thus ! O Lord, Thou pointest out this 
way to us, and conductest us therein; grant 
that it may never be in our power to forsake it. 



94 The Nezu Life i?i Christ Jesus 

that we may die a thousand tmies rather than 
turn aside from this path, and that we may 
suffer reason to grumble and complain. No 
ear any more but to listen unto Thee; no eye 
but to behold Thee; no heart any more but to 
love Thee, to allow ourselves to be attracted by 
Thee, and to forsake ourselves and every thing- 
else. Let us die before Thy eyes in faith and 
in crosses. This is our vocation; all the rest 
doth not concern us, and ought only to be 
looked at transiently. Let us leave it for what 
it is. Our only object suificeth us; by it self- 
love is destroyed, and cannot subsist before 
God. Amen. 



CHAPTER XII 



THE OWNERS OF HEAVEN 

Poverty of spirit desirable — ^Nlakes us abandon ourselves 
to God — It hath its degrees — Is little known till we 
have the experience of it. 

I. Blessed are the poor i?i spirit, for theirs is 
the ki7igdom of Heave?i^ saith our Saviour 
(Matt. V. 3). O blessed poverty ! How good 
art thou I In how great security and tran- 
quillity doth one abide with thee ! But how 
disagreeable art thou to nature and to reason ! 
My God, Thou inspirest my soul with an 
earnest desire after this poverty. I love it, and 
am quite charmed with it ; for it does homage 
to Thy grandeur, it exalts Thy Name, and 
glorifies Thee in due manner; it debases me, 
makes me httle, and reduces me to nothingness, 
as is meet and just. O how much 1 am pleased 
with the words of the wise man (Prov. xxx. 2, 3) : 
/ am viore brutish tha?i a?iy vnui^ and I have 
95 



g6 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

not the imderstanding of a man. No more 
have I, and my heart rejoices at it. O my 
God,- I bless and praise Thee for this. 

2. I rejoice exceedingly, O my God, that 
Thou overthrowest me, turnest me upside down, 
transportest me into another world, so that I 
have no stay to which I can lean, nor anything 
within myself that I can 'take hold of, neither 
light, nor sentiment, nor promise on Thy part. 
All is torn out of my hands, and — after having 
showed me some great things which Thou art 
just ready to execute, and to which I sacrifice 
myself, resigning myself to Thy holy will in 
all things — Thou delightest immediately to 
change the whole scene, to deprive me of all, 
and to place me anew in my nothingness, as a 
thing unprofitable in every respect. O how do 
I bless, and praise, and thank Thee for this with 
all my heart ! I am ravished to be disconcerted 
in everything, and my faith and confidence in 
Thee alone is thereby augmented. I leap for 
joy that Thou standest in need of none to carry 
on Thy work, to establish Thy reign in all 
hearts ! O my God, do but annihilate me 
entirely; it is all that I desire of Thee. Make 
me thus truly poor in spirit. Grant I may 
restore Thee all Thy goods, and that I may 



TJie Ozuners of Heaven 97 

be disabled for ever hereafter from robbing any- 
thing of Thine from Thee. Not only so, but let 
all self-complacency likewise in Thy gifts, even 
the least gratification — every look, were it only 
a casual glance — let all be banished, all that 
is not Thee, my dear and Divine Saviour; let 
not Thy purity be tarnished by my breath. O 
my God ! it is for that purity and sanctity that 
Thou vouchsafest that I should be concerned ; 
do Thou never permit that I be so miserable 
as to profane it by anything of my own. Lord, 
exterminate this horrible monster (of selfness) 
which Thou hast given me the grace to abominate 
in myself. 

3. Poverty of spirit hath many degrees. 
Everybody understands these words of our 
Lord according to the state he is in, and the 
degree of renunciation to which he is arrived. 
Experience alone in the ways of the Spirit 
teaches us how far this lesson extends ; and 
without that it is only considered very super- 
ficially ; and we often fancy ourselves far ad- 
vanced therein, when we have not yet entered 
upon it as we ought. Man is made after such 
a manner that he leaves one thing only to take 
hold of a better; — at least he hopes to make 
an advantageous exchange. It is very true, the 

H 



98 Tlie Nezu Life in Christ Jesus 

intention of God in all the renunciations and 
deaths through which He makes His children 
to pass, is only that He Himself may be their 
riches and their treasure. But we really figure 
to ourselves quite a different notion of this 
matter, before we are in some measure arrived 
at the so much desired end, which we never 
could attain to if God did not employ proper 
means, and did not conduct us by paths so 
contrary to all the ideas we had formed about 
them, that we find ourselves altogether in 
another world, and entirely mistaken in our 
reckoning. It is this very thing that puts 
us in a condition to be able to die to ourselves 
entirely and to all things, even the very best ; 
which is the most difficult step we have to 
make, in order to surrender ourselves without 
terms into the hands of God. This excludes 
all hope and pretensions even as to the spiritual 
and eternal riches, which had been, according 
to our ideas, the lawful objects of our hopes, 
and for the acquisition of which we had sold all 
that we believed ourselves possessed of. We 
failed, however, to recognize that these are the 
great treasures that we possessed or to which we 
laid claim, and compared to which all that we 
had renounced was not worth naming : though 



The Owners of Heaven 99 

we fancied that in renouncing these things we 
v;ere become poor in spirit. And in effect that 
was laudable for that time : but we had amassed 
more valuable riches and treasures than before, 
of which we must be dispossessed and stripped. 

4. Strip then, O my dearest Love, strip Thy 
poor creature entirely, and be Thou alone rich in 
Thyself, and for Thyself ! Let our greatest con- 
tentment be Thy riches and our poverty. Let 
us know nothing but Thee, nothing at all in our- 
selves, O my God ! For I abhor and detest 
every thought of being able to find any good in 
myself, and I will admit none such. Every 
thought which would induce me to rest or lean 
on myself is a delusion and a lie ; and if I am 
unfortunate enough to harbour such, Thou wilt 
quickly suffer me to experience the mad futility 
of this plan by retiring for a little, in order to 
punish me. Thy hand that supports me, and con- 
tinually prevents my falling into all kinds of sin 
and wickedness. I will therefore love nothing in 
myself, O my God, but my weakness, my misery, 
and my nothingness : it is in these that I will 
boast with Thy holy apostle. This is what 
heightens Thy glory. Thy greatness. Thy good- 
ness, and Thy faithfulness, which is infinitely 
exalted and glorified in that Thou preservest 



lOO TJie New Life in Christ Jesus 

incessantly the weakest, the most wretched, the 
most foohsh, and the most corrupt of creatures, 
by Thy powerful hand ! Thou preservest him 
from tumbling into those bottomless pits into 
which his miseries would by their weight infal- 
libly hurry him without that continual support 
and assistance. Blessed be Thou, O my God, 
for that Thy riches for Thee and in Thee are 
sufficient infinitely to content the creature, poor 
in itself to extremity. I find my peace, my 
contentment, and my repose in my poverty; 
and I praise and bless Thee on that account. 
And if I still dare ask anything of Thee, it is to 
strip me, to annihilate me, and to make me 
still more poor, as long as there shall be found 
in me anything to be impoverished and anni- 
hilated. For it is Thy glory and Thy honour 
alone that ought to challenge my concern, O 
my God ! and that ought to make and to be 
eternally the sole object of my complacency and 
regard. To Thee alone, then, O my God, in 
profound adoration, be honour and glory for 
ever! Amen. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE TRUE RELIGION 

The re-establishing the image of God ia us is the found- 
ation of religion, which Jesus Christ operateth — The 
corruption and disunion of external religions — Of the 
spiritual union of the children of God, for which every 
one for his own part ought to prepare himself by the 
extirpation of all selfishness, and of the root of vices — 
When the reign of God is in us we arrive at that 
union — How the want of renouncing our own spirit 
is the cause of all the divisions, and of all the evil — 
The remedy — God displays His secrets in the ground 
of the heart, under the darkness of faith — In the 
person that submits himself wholly to God He 
establishes the union which is not made by any 
external thing but in God — We must die to the 
inward and outward senses. 

I. St. Paul saith : For other fou?idatwn can 710 
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ 
(i Cor. iii. 11). It is Christ in us that is the new 
creature, as Himself tells Nicodemus : If a man 
is not bor?i agaifi, he ca?mot see the kingdom of 
God (John iii. 3). The foundation of our 
Christian religion, then, is no other thing but 

lOI 



102 The New bife in Christ Jesus 

regeneration, which consisteth in dying to the 
old man, that we may hve to the new. It is to 
become a new man, created after God in right- 
eousness and true hohness. This new man is 
none other than Jesus Christ Who is formed 
in us, Who changes us so, that we are renewed 
after His image. We thereby render to God the 
justice that is due to Him, in restoring to Him 
the usurpations we have made upon Him, as 
well with respect to ourselves, in becoming our 
own proprietors, as in claiming for ourselves 
a privilege over all the other creatures, and 
desiring to dispose of them according to our 
own will and choice. In restoring all this to 
Him, and entering again into our dependence 
on Him, we do Him the justice that is due to 
Him, and thereby give Him an opportunity 
that the new man may be created in us. This 
renovation then is the foundation and scope of 
all rehgion ; it is what God aims at in all He 
proposes to us in the Gospel, and all the Holy 
Scripture ; and it is certain that, provided He 
attains this end of reviving His image in us, 
which is Jesus Christ the New Man, it is all 
that He requires. 

2. It is to accomplish this work that He 
invites us so tenderly to come unto Him : 



The True Religion 103 



Come unto Me^ says Jesus Christ (Matt. xi. 28) \ 
and again: Search the Scriptures : for in them 
ye thi7ik ye have eternal life ; and they are they 
which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, 
that ye might have life (John v. 39, 40). It is 
Jesus alone Who can give you that Spirit of Life, 
and create again in you the New Man. We see 
that all which our Divine Saviour proposes to us 
in the Gospel hath no other aim but to engage 
us to deny ourselves, and our selfness, that we 
may come to Him, and give ourselves to Him, 
as unto our liege-Lord and King. All that 
should make the object of our belief, or of our 
faith, is this Jesus Christ, embracing and receiv- 
ing Him in us as our Rewarder and Saviour. 
It is by Him that we recover life, and without 
Him we cannot but remain in death, and 
in the bondage of sin, for He alone is our 
deliverer. 

3. No Christian, in my opinion, who worthily 
bears the name, can contradict this truth, which 
is so plain and manifest in all the Holy Scripture : 
and we must own, that whoever puts himself 
in the disposition to submit and resign himself 
to his Redeemer, Jesus Christ — going to Him 
with a sincere heart, and desirous to disclaim 
himself and all things, in order to restore them 



104 ^^^^ iVi^ze/ Life i?i Christ Jesus 

to his lawful Lord and King — is in the true way 
that leads to the end (and design) of religion, 
and consequently possesses the true religion 
which guides us to salvation. 

4. Is not this what every soul, to whom God 
vouchsafes the grace to be converted to Him, 
experiences in himself? If, in the first place, 
he attends to the voice of conscience, will not 
that check him ? Will it not prove a corrector, 
to incline and admonish him to abstain from 
gross sins, from avarice, from pride, from am- 
bition, from sensuality, from luxury, etc., and 
incite him to the practice of the virtues of 
charity, of humility, of renouncing the pleasures 
of sense, of chastity, of the love of God and our 
neighbour, and of the hatred of ourselves? 
Will he not be attracted inwardly, if he is 
faithful in this first renunciation, to forsake 
himself and his own interest, as well with regard 
to spirituals as temporals? Will not the law 
of the love of God, which is by degrees engraved 
in his heart, teach him these things? Will it 
not lead him to the pure love which banishes 
all selfishness, that we may have no more views, 
no more drift, no more interest in anything, but 
in our God, in His glory, and the accomplish- 
ment of His will? Will not this love become 



Tlie True Religion 105 

so vehement in his heart, that it shall at last 
change him entirely ? So that he may truly 
say with St. Paul, / live no more, but Christ 
liveth in me (Qx?\. ii. 20). 

5. Here, then, you have in miniature the true 
religion, the true belief, and the true saving and 
justifying faith. I do not think there is any 
man whatsoever, though he have but some 
faint light, and some small experience of what 
the voice of conscience is, and have but a Uttle 
attended to what passes in his heart, who is 
not convinced of the truth of what I have here 
advanced, namely, that in this consists the end 
and essence of reHgion, and the nature of faith 
in Jesus Christ ; not of an imaginary dead and 
historical faith, but of a justifying, lively, and 
saving faith, which makes us partakers of Jesus 
Christ, and transforms us into Him. This, then, 
is the foundation, the essence and end of 
religion. 

6. How comes it to pass, then, that men 
amuse themselves with a hundred thousand 
things that are only mere accessories to this 
religion ? About endless diversities of outward 
ceremonies with which they have dressed it up ? 
About so many different sentiments concerning 
certain points, opinions, and doctrines which 



io6 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

they have espoused, according to the different 
idea which men have formed to themselves 
about them ? Concerning these they have 
drawn up confessions of faith, taken from and 
supported by passages of the Holy Scripture 
which they have found to favour their opinions, 
which afterwards they will needs advance and 
maintain as the foundation of religion, and the 
cement of their union. And this hath been 
the occasion of schism, hatred, persecution, and 
all sorts of division among men ever since the 
beginning of Christianity. 

7. But it is not surprising that matters should 
go thus among the generality of men, who in 
reality know no other religion but their temporal 
interest, their pleasures, voluptuousness, and 
sensuahty; who place all their satisfaction in the 
enjoyment of earthly things, and the gratification 
of their irregular passions; who imagine that 
they discharge the duty they owe to God, by 
some external show and air of devotion. As to 
these, I say, it is not surprising, that having 
no mind to deny themselves and their carnal 
pleasures, they seek to persuade themselves 
that they are good Christians, when they 
zealously maintain their opinions in the accessory 
things of the Christian religion, which they have 



The True Religion 107 

embraced either by their own choice, or because 
they inherit them from their parents. 

8. But it is surprising that souls whom God 
hath drawn to Himself, by the grace which He 
hath vouchsafed them to renounce the filth and 
pollution of sin, and who have a sincere desire 
to live unto God ; that such souls — seduced by 
their own spirit, curious to penetrate into 
profound mysteries, or by the credit which other 
men of eloquence have acquired with them, and 
the ascendant they have got over their minds 
— should suffer themselves to be persuaded 
that such accessory opinions are the foundation 
on which religion ought to rest, and the cement 
of union that ought to be among the children 
of God. This, I own, is what astonishes me, 
and I pray God with all my heart that He may 
enlighten their understanding, and lead them 
in the way of lowUness, and of truly renounc- 
ing their own spirit, that they may share in 
the promise our Lord Jesus Christ makes to 
those that are poor in spirit (Matt. v. 3). 
Amen. 

9. Herein it is, that the union of the members 
of Jesus Christ consists. All who suffer them- 
selves to be possessed by His Spirit, who have 
given admittance to that Spirit in their heart, by 



io8 Tlie Neiv Life i7i Christ Jesus 

a sincere desire, and a will determined to bid 
farewell to all things, and to themselves ; these 
are united one with another by the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ, which is in them. And according 
as that Holy Spirit takes possession of the 
whole soul in driving out the old man, till such 
time as he is entirely banished, or rather that 
he is entirely dead ; according as that work is 
advanced and perfected, so far are these souls 
united with Jesus Christ, and likewise among 
themselves, being partakers of one and the same 
spirit, that moves and governs them. It is for 
this reason that St. Paul says : As ??ia?iy as are 
led by the Spirit of God^ they are the Sons of 
God {Kom. viii. 14). How, then, is it possible 
there should be any division among them? 
This is as impossible as it is that a body that is 
animated only by one spirit, should be divided 
and at variance with the members that compose 
it, and that these members should be divided 
among themselves. 

10. If then we would see union flourish 
among the children of God, if we desire that all 
division and misunderstanding should cease. Ict- 
us all take up a new and firm resolution of 
renouncing ourselves and all things, all our 
selfish tempers, and most refined passions, and 



The True Religion 109 

the roots of those vices that are so deeply 
planted in our natures. Let us surrender and 
sacrifice ourselves to Jesus Christ anew without 
reserve, that He may dispose of us according to 
His pleasure, and prepare us by the operation 
of His Holy Spirit to become His permanent 
habitation, that He may reign in us as sovereign 
Lord. Let us, for this purpose, follow all the 
motions of our conscience, and the inward 
attraction of our centre, which incessantly in- 
vites every soul, according to the state or degree 
of conversion it is in, to self-denial. Let us 
not embarrass or encumber ourselves with any 
other thing, but to be attentive to the voice and 
attraction of the Well-beloved of our soul. Who 
invites us so lovingly to follow Him. Let us 
cast off all care and concern for every other 
thing, as not belonging to us, and we shall soon 
perceive the reign of our Saviour Jesus Christ 
to flourish and settle in us, and in all those that 
shall without hypocrisy follow this rule. We 
shall see union gradually cemented and con- 
firmed among us, according as the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ shall take entire possession of us, 
and all misunderstanding, dispute, scandal, and 
division shall cease, without our thinking of the 
matter. 



no Tlie New Life in Christ Jesus 

II. In the same manner, as it happens to 
every one of us, that the more the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ takes the possession and govern- 
ment in us, and subjects to itself all the powers 
of our soul, the more also does war and dissen- 
sion cease within us. And when our whole 
being, the whole man, is entirely subjected to 
Him, there is nothing any more in us but a 
sweet and agreeable peace, an entire harmony 
of the whole man, which is subjected to the 
yoke of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, AVho governs 
him as his King, with gentleness and benignity, 
and whom the man obeys in all His powers, 
without any violence or resistance. He is in 
peace and perfect union with God, and in 
admirable harmony with himself. And all the 
parts and members that compose him do mutu- 
ally assist, love, and serve one another, according 
to the employment assigned to each by the 
spirit that governs him. And all this is done 
solely by the submission and inward attention 
into which man is entered by surrendering him- 
self to his Saviour Jesus Christ, Who by His 
Holy Spirit hath wrought this great work in 
him, and hath caused an admirable peace and 
harmony to succeed to a terrible war, which the 
fire of His Spirit has kindled in man, in order 



The Trtce Religion 1 1 1 

to consume the obstacles that hindered the 
estabhshment of His reign. 

12. Thus shall it come to pass, if it please 
God in a little time, peace and union shall 
succeed to trouble and dissension among those 
that seek after God sincerely. As soon as they 
shall abandon all the fruitless labour in which 
the greater part have been employed, in order 
to mind the one thing necessary — namely, to 
enter into the true denial of themselves, to 
which the Spirit of Grace that is in them inces- 
santly invites them, if they attend to it — that 
Eternal Spirit Who resides in the depth of 
their heart will invite them to die to the desire 
of knowing and possessing, in order to inflame 
their hearts more and more with the pure fire of 
the Divine Love. To this Love those desires are 
so contrary, that they keep and fix us in ourselves, 
and in our own spirit; they hinder our union 
with God and with one another; detain us in 
multiplicity, and prevent our ever arriving at 
true peace of mind, either with ourselves or 
others. For most certainly there is no union to 
be expected among us, so long as we are 
amused or attached to anything whatever but to 
God, and the inward attention which He re- 
quires of us to follow Him, and to let Him 



112 Tlie Nezu Life in CJirist Jesus 

operate in us, in order to bring about the utter 
destruction of our selfness. Without this, no 
union with God or among oursekes is possible. 

13. For I beseech you to tell me, is there 
any reason why a soul, in the disposition of 
renouncing himself which I have described in 
the beginning of this chapter, should not arrive 
at the Divine Union without having or busying 
himself about any other thing than inwardly 
attending to what passes in his heart : walking 
and behaving thus in all things as in the pre- 
sence of God ; after a child-like manner, re- 
nouncing himself, and foUovN^ing the way which 
the Spirit of Grace shows him internally ? He 
will undoubtedly arrive thereat, should he know 
nothing else but the obedience which he faith- 
fully practises. This would be the means of 
leading him to God, were he otherwise without 
information, or had no distinct light about the 
other mysteries or articles of belief with which 
our creeds are filled. If he simply believed 
without distinction all that is recorded in the 
Holy Scripture about other religious matters 
seeking after no other knowledge but to possess 
God in forsaking and renouncing himself, God 
would afterwards teach him His secrets. 

14. I am of opinion, then, that in these last 



The True Religion 113 

times God will lead souls to this truth, reclaim- 
ing them from such a multiplicity of practices, 
of learned glosses and interpretations, in order 
to attach them solely to the possession of God ; 
and then laying aside all the rest, a union will 
come founded in God Himself. We shall 
know one another, love one another, and be 
united together without any effort, by the Spirit, 
w^hich will animate us all, the Spirit of Jesus 
Christ. God grant us this grace. Amen, Jesus ! 
for the glory of Thy Name, come quickly and 
take possession of Thy kingdom ! Amen. 

15. The thing, then, which hinders the reign 
of Jesus Christ in us, is the want of renouncing 
our own spirit, which we idolize to such a 
degree that we easily and joyfully renounce all 
the rest without pain. But all this renunciation, 
though good in itself, serves only to nourish and 
entertain our own spirit, if the renouncing of it 
also does not follow, especially since our spirit 
cleaves to nothing more violently than to spiritual 
things, or what it believes to be such ; and these 
are the most difficult to be renounced. Hence 
it comes that for lack of this all the other 
renunciations which make a glaring show out- 
wardly, and which the souls that seek after God 

embrace in the beginning with great warmth, 

I 



114 ^^^^ New Life in CJirist Jesus 

are nevertheless but of little moment in com- 
parison of this other that costs them so dear. 
For they are so strongly attached to their ideas, 
to what they fancy they knovr by their under- 
standing, and which they believe to be true 
(especially when the sentiments they have em- 
braced are different from the common opinion), 
that they bring persecution upon themselves, 
and hazard life and fortune in supporting them ; 
which they do with zeal and animosity against 
all those that are of a contrary sentiment, 
though these be more enlightened, more ad- 
vanced in the way of piety, and have more 
experience than themselves. 

1 6. As these opinions are therefore very dif- 
ferent, and often contrary among people of 
probity, and since each of them is nevertheless 
strongly biassed to his pretended lights and 
sentiments, in the accessory things of religion, 
and in a great number of opinions : and since 
each will needs defend his sentiment, and would 
believe he did an injury to God — that he would 
be a hypocrite, and act against his conscience, 
if he yielded, and did not support his opinions 
with all his power and might; that he must 
endeavour with eagerness to make them received 
by others ; and since these refuse to adjust the 



The Tnte Religion 115 



difference, how is it possible that this should 
not create division, aversion, different parties, 
and all sorts of mischief? 

17. But you will say, how shall we remedy 
this evil which is so manifest ? I know no other 
remedy for me, but to submit my spirit to Jesus 
Christ, to look upon the doctrine of self-denial, 
which I have treated of in the beginning of this 
chapter, as the one thing necessary to be believed ; 
to adhere to God alone in giving my heart to 
Him. As to the rest, all the tenets of religion 
are almost all disputed among men, even among 
the men of piety ; and everybody, I think, 
explains them, and supports his sentences by 
passages of Holy Writ, the letter of which makes 
the apple of discord among them. On the other 
hand, when I see that, in spite of the diversity of 
sentiments, there are in all the parties some 
truly pious, and who seek God with all their 
heart, I conclude that the things that make the 
subject of their dispute are only accessories, 
since the diversity of their opinions does not 
hinder the Spirit of Grace from operating in their 
hearts, and communicating itself to them. But 
as nevertheless I cannot afford time to examine 
which of these have the sound doctrine, and the 
most conformable to truth in the things that 



ii6 Tlie New Life in Clirist Jesus 

make the subject of their dispute — having neither 
sufficient Hght nor capacity to unravel all that 
they propose to me pro and con — diis inquiry 
leaves me nothing but doubt and uncertainty 
in my understanding, which is too stinted, so that 
the last sentiment that I shall read or hear will 
appear to me to be the true one. And thus as 
they vrill all make use of the Holy Scriptures to 
prove their opinions or belief, and as I firmly 
believe all that is contained in that sacred Book, 
I shall be like a weathercock, tossed to and fro, 
and car?ied about with every ivind of doctrine, by 
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness (Ephes. 
iv. 14). 

18. To avoid this, I leave all these inquiries, 
I cast myself into the arms of God, and say : 
My God ! I believe all that it hath pleased Thee 
to reveal in Holy Writ. I embrace and receive 
it. But as I am incapable of comprehending its 
meaning, and as one thing only is necessary, — 
to wit, that I renounce myself, and all my corrupt 
passions, that I go to Jesus Christ my Saviour, 
Who invites me, and is willing to deliver me from 
my corruption, and to make me become a new 
creature in Him, and by Him — I come unto Thee, 
and beseech Thee to take my heart, which Thou 
drawest after Thee, and to grant me the grace 



The True Religion 117 

to obey Thee in following my Saviour, and 
abandoning myself to Him without reserve. As 
for every other thing that I read in Sacred Writ, 
I believe that all is truth as Thou hast revealed 
it by my Saviour Jesus Christ, His apostles and 
Thy prophets. I believe it, and am wilHng to 
understand it according to the sense Thou hast 
given it by Thy Holy Spirit that has dictated it ; 
but I have not the boldness to desire to com- 
prehend the meaning of it by my weak and 
darkened understanding; neither dare I pray 
to Thee to enlighten me as to all these things, 
since Thy apostle St. Paul saith, that hiowledge 
ptLffeth up^ and that he desires to knoiu nothing 
hut Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is to this 
knowledge that I choose to confine myself, as he 
did, and to desire nothing but the entire cruci- 
fixion of my old man. This is what my Saviour 
is willing to operate in me, and by that operation 
of His Spirit I shall by my own experience learn 
that science which Thy holy apostle desires to 
know, to wit, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 
To this I am willing to limit my knowledge ; it 
is what gives peace to my soul, and sets my 
heart, in tranquillity and repose ; draws me out 
of multiplicity, and places me in unity. O 
agreeable ignorance of all the rest ! It suffices 



Ii8 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

me, my God, that Thou knowest all : uniting 
myself to Thee, to Thy will, to Thy sentiments, 
I know all, though I know nothing in myself, in 
my capacity, and in a distinct manner ; nor do I 
desire to know anything. 

19. Thus God is my all, and this sufficeth me. 
He is the truth. I embrace Him entue as He is 
in Himself ; or rather I plunge myself and lose 
myself in Him, Who infinitely surpasses all my 
comprehension. O sacred ignorance ! more 
learned than all we can believe ; for thou art no 
more bounded than God Himself, to Whom alone 
I adhere, and to nothing less than Him. If 
thereafter it shall please God to cause to issue 
forth from the sacred darkness of faith, which is 
the place of my abode, some beams that may 
strike me, and show my understanding something 
distinct about any of His mysteries, of which He 
has made some faint discovery in Sacred Writ ; 
I receive that light with humility. I take down 
in writing what it discovers to me ; which at the 
same time (from the depth of my heart whence 
it flows) it imprints in my understanding with 
certainty and evidence ; I write it down, I say, 
for the edification of my brethren. If they meet 
with anything therein that may be useful, or 
profitable to them, I rejoice at it ; but God 



The True Religion 119 

forbid that I should make any parade of these 
h'ghts which it pleases God to vouchsafe me 
freely. I will neither boast of them, nor en- 
deavour to persuade any person to accept them, 
nor trouble myself to anathematize those that will 
not receive them, nor make a party with those 
that shall ; far less pretend that these notices 
ought to be made the basis and foundation of 
the union of the children of God. Be all such 
sentiments far from me ; whoever has them is 
possessed rather of the spirit of error than the 
spirit of truth, though he had the greatest lights, 
and (knew) the most sublime mysteries. 

20. I know no other truth but God Himself. 
All men are liars (Ps. cxvi. 11). And every 
light or notice that can be comprehended by the 
human understanding is only a faint ray, a 
small, a very small part of what He enlightens 
us with, and falls infinitely short of the reality. 
In this class of Divine things (which are those I 
mean) I rank for example those that regard God 
Himself, His essence, the Holy Trinity, our 
adorable Saviour Jesus Christ, His humanity, 
His merits, what He hath done for us, His 
eternal generation and other mysteries of the 
Christian religion, of which no man can have 
any knowledge but in part, and but in a small 



I20 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

part, since these things do infinitely surpass the 
human capacity. Let us adore these mysteries, 
and acknowledge that we cannot attain unto 
them. Let us do homage to the immense 
grandeur of our God. Let us put ourselves in 
a disposition to receive the efficacy of that love 
He hath for us, which surpasses all knowledge. 
Let us worship, and plunge ourselves into that 
ocean of love and grace which is presented 
to us. 

21. And thus doing homage to our God in 
acknowledging with the holy apostle St. Paul 
that we know hut in part (i Cor. xiii. 9), we will 
not stand trifling and disputing about our little 
discoveries, condemning those that will not re- 
ceive them. We shall be far from making them 
the foundation of religion, but will ourselves 
get beyond them incessantly, in order to cleave 
to our God alone. We shall seek to be united 
to Him by an entire renunciation of ourselves. 
It will be this renunciation that will give occa- 
sion to the life of Jesus Christ to settle in our 
hearts, which is the spirit of charity or Divine 
Love. It will be this spirit that will unite all 
of us together ; all those in whom it shall 
dwell and reign, by the entire destruction of all 
selfishness, arrogance, or presumption. All the 



The Trite Religion 121 

unselfish shall be strictly united, and being 
quickened and governed by one and the same 
spirit they shall want no other law to maintain 
their union, but what is prescribed by the love 
that dwelleth in them ; which will be as natural to 
them as the harmony, the mutual aid and union 
which is found among all the parts and mem- 
bers of the human body, and of the whole man. 
Without this there is no union to be sought or 
expected; it is in vain; God will level every 
other foundation; for Himself will be the only 
one on which His Church shall be built. 

22. Shall we make union to consist in out- 
ward forms, in assembling, praying together, 
singing, hearing, and preaching according to the 
manner that each religion or society has found 
most convenient, for mutual edification and 
instruction? It is very plain that it is not in 
these things that union consists; since in all the 
different parts there are found some souls that 
love God sincerely, and likewise some that are 
hypocrites. Those who would needs reform, 
separate themselves, and form outward societies 
composed onl^ of children of God, have never 
to this day been able to obtain their aim. This 
sufficiently shows that it is in vain we labour 
to obtain an union of that kind. This, on the 



122 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

contrary, is what has produced the different 
sects and parties among those that bear the 
name of Christians. 

23. Besides, the very nature of the exercises 
that are practised in the best of these assem- 
bhes (where there are most persons that seek 
God sincerely, and where the preachers are 
hkewise of the same way of thinking) cannot 
permit a perfect union. For that which ought 
to make our union with one another can be no 
other thing than that which makes our union 
with God : and we have aheady shown that it 
is not by anything that the external or internal 
senses can operate or comprehend, that we 
arrive at this union, but only because God con- 
ducts the souls whom He designs to carry 
thither, by the death of all the operations, not 
only of the outward and inward senses, but 
likewise of those of the most noble powers of 
the soul, namely, the operations of our under- 
standing, memory, and will; this last noble part 
being unable to act in any other manner but 
by submitting itself, by suffering, or being 
passive. This death is absolutely necessary, 
that we may arrive anew at the Divine union. 
This is what all the saints, and every soul to 
whom God vouchsafes this grace, do testify; 



Tlie True Religion 123 

and it is the most painful and sharpest death 
that we have to pass through, in order to arrive 
at that state. But all that is practised in these 
assemblies is operated only by the faculties of 
the senses and external powers, and serves to 
keep them up, to nourish, and to put them in a 
readiness for the good things that are presented 
to them, in order to awaken and give them an 
appetite for obtaining new life, if they are in a 
languishing state, and at the last extremities. 

24. All this is very good for such persons as 
still are and live in these things, in order to 
excite them to forsake the evil and practise the 
good, and to abstain from those hurtful and 
unprofitable things to which they applied the 
faculties above mentioned. For these persons 
are still in the outward senses, and therefore 
words that may strike the outward senses, and 
incite them to seek after God, and show them 
w^iere to find Him, are necessary to inform 
them of it. And, indeed, those who are called 
to teach the ignorant, and exhort men to amend 
their lives, are obliged to do it with fidelity. 
But they must not pretend that those exercises 
of outward piety are what ought to constitute 
the union of the members of Jesus Christ. 
God is a Spirit^ and they that worship Him 



124 T^f^^ Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

must worship Him i?i spirit and i?i truth (John 
iv. 24). This spirit is entirely disengaged and 
separate frorn tlie senses and their operations, 
and is not communicated by their assistance, 
but by the centre or essence of the soul ; or 
to speak more properly, by the spirit, or the 
inward man, which I have called the Divine 
man, which alone is capable of being united 
to God, by the resemblance it bears to this 
Supreme Being, of which it is an emanation or 
efflux. It is nothing then but necessity that 
makes God seek after us by the mediation and 
help of the senses. It is not His voice that 
makes itself to be heard by them, but the voices 
of His ministers, of saints or angels, and their 
admonitions serve only to invite us to enter 
again into our hearts, to seek our God there, 
as being the place where He communicates 
Himself to us anew in the centre of our souls, 
the moment we are capable of receiving Him. 

25. Those that are the ministers of God in 
this office will be charmed, if their hearers 
quickly learn to understand the voice of the 
true Shepherd, Jesus Christ, within them. 
As soon as that comes to pass, this Shepherd 
will invite them to silence and to cease 
from the operations of their senses, in order 



The True Religion 



125 



to keep themselves at His feet and listen 
peaceably. Being attracted thereto in their 
inmost heart, they will forsake everything that 
keeps up the commerce with the senses. Those 
true ministers will not be jealous that their 
hearers leave them to hearken more attentively 
to the voice of the true teacher, Jesus Christ. 
They will rejoice at it, and be so much the 
more united to them in Him, Who alone ought 
to make the cement of their union. Being 
arrived at this grace, we shall know, assist, and 
converse with each other by the same spirit, 
and in the same spirit, in the same manner that 
God communicates Himself to us, without any 
need of the mediation of the senses. Distance 
of places, and bodily absence, will not hinder 
our communication. And thus knowing by our 
own experience, and participating in that union 
of spirit with God, and among ourselves in 
reality and truth, we shall be far from desiring 
to lay the foundation of it, in the operations of 
the senses, from which we find ourselves separ- 
ated more and more. It is for this reason that 
our Lord Jesus Christ says to His apostles : If 
I go 7wt away^ the Comforter will ?wt come 
(John xvi. 7). If I do not deprive you of My 
bodily Presence, ye shall not receive My Spirit. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE SEALED BOOK 

Of the pure love which man owes to God. 

Love is the sealed book which the Lamb opens — ^Jesus 
Christ hath manifested His infinite love by His descent 
to us — He also demands a pure love from us, which we 
owe Him as our Benefactor — A comparison — Love, or 
the union of the will with God, makes Paradise. 

I. O MY dear Love ! who is it that is worthy to 

wTite of Thy love, which is an unmeasurable 

depth, that hath neither bottom nor bank ? My 

Lord and my God ! This love is indeed of all 

depths the most unfathomable ! There is none 

but Thou alone. Love itself, that deserves to 

bear testimony of it in a manner worthy of the 

same Love ! Let every tongue be silent ! No 

man zuas found worthy to open and read the Book, 

?ieither to look upon it (Rev. v. 4). This Book 

is none other than the Love of God. The Lamb 

alone in Whom all the Divine Love is centred is 

worthy to open it, and to manifest it unto men ! 
126 



The Sealed Book 127 



It is He Who by the same love suffered Himself 
to be slain, and sacrificed Himself to be by that 
means the person that should manifest it unto 
men ! O my God, I adore ! nor do I find that 
the profoundest nothingness hath depth enough 
for me to plunge into, out of the veneration, 
humiliation, and respectful admiration which 
one ray of Thy love that shines in my heart 
produces in me ! Thou art Thyself, O Divine 
Lamb, that nothingness deep enough for me 
to plunge myself in ! It is in Thee that the 
love of annihilation and profound abasement 
which Thou infusest into my heart finds where- 
withal to satisfy itself! O Thou that hast 
exhausted and gone to the bottom of that abyss 
of annihilation into which we must again enter, 
in order to recover anew the glory and the 
honour of being re-united to our God ! O 
adorable Lamb ! to Thee appertains the honour 
and the glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

2. It is before Thee that I come, in the 
company of the holy elders, to cast myself on 
the ground, and to prostrate myself in Thy 
presence ; for it is Thou that washest us from 
our sins in Thy blood. Herein is the love of 
God, which ope?teth the seals of the sealed Book, 
which 7i07ie is ivorthy to open, i?i Heave?i or i?i 



128 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

earth but Thou, O Divine Lamb ! And why ? 
Because Thou alone hast annihilated and 
humbled Thyself, hast despised Thy own glory, 
pushed on by the infinite love which Thou hast 
for the human race. Thou hast sacrificed Thy 
repose and Thy happiness, in order to descend 
into the most profound annihilation.^ By this 
annihilation and descent Thou hast again ope7ied 
the Book with the seven seals^ which it was 
impossible for us to open. We should have 
remained eternally separate from Thee, O my 
God, if Thy love had not come and descended 
towards us, and wrought this marvellous work ! 
What hast Thou reserved then, O Divine Love ! 
that Thou hast not sacrificed for us Thine ene- 
mies to bring us again to a reconciliation, and 
to make our rebellion to cease? And it is 
by Thy descent to humanity that salv .tion is 
purchased for every creature ; but not in any 
other manner than as Thou hast obtained it. 
We must follow Thee, O Divine Love, and in Thy 
attendance be exposed to the sufferings Thou 
hast experienced. Here is the foundation of 
pure love ; for how could we or should we love 
God otherwise than as He hath loved us ? Is 
it that our love for Him should be of a lower 
1 Philip, ii. 7, R.V. 



Tlie Sealed Book 



129 



order, or less in its kind, though it be infinitely 
less in its measure ? My meaning is, that God 
being infinite, His love also is infinite. We are 
limited creatures, thus our love is such too ; but 
the purity should be equal ; and to have none 
but Him for its object, is what that love requires. 

3. For how should we regard ourselves, our 
own happiness, our own interest out of God, 
when we see a God Who sacrifices all His 
glory and His happiness for the love He 
bears to us, and has no regard to any of these 
things? He embraces sorrow, and plunges 
Himself into the most dreadful misery, the 
most profound annihilation, the most cruel 
sufferings ! For He was made a curse for us^ 
saith St. Paul (Gal. iii. 13), and all this out of 
pure love to us. Shall we after this inquire 
what measure and what bounds that love requires 
which we ought to have for Him? Whether 
we ought to preserve any interest of our own 
with respect to time or eternity, which we are 
not obliged, by the reciprocal love that we owe 
to this Benefactor, cheerfully to sacrifice to 
Him ? 

4. O how little generosity resides in their 
hearts that make any doubt of it! You could 
not behave thus towards a man your equal, who 

K 



130 The Nezu Life in Christ Jesus 

had saved your life by hazarding his own, far 
less if he had in very truth laid it down and lost 
it, had made himself to be massacred in the most 
cruel manner, and that without any other 
interest than to save your life, which without 
that you had lost infallibly. If, moreover, this 
your benefactor, your saviour, and deliverer, 
were the son of a great king, and you a poor, 
weak, utterly ignorant and helpless child, would 
you not be under an obligation, out of pure 
gratitude, overwhelmed and confounded at 
such a good office, to make an entire sacrifice 
of yourself to him, without reflection or 
reserve? You would still fi.nd yourself greatly 
honoured, in being able to give him some 
testimony of your gratitude, by devoting your- 
self entirely to his service, that he might 
dispose of you according to his pleasure. 
Could you so much as once suspect yourself 
in danger, by resigning yourself into the hands 
of this your good king and saviour, in order to 
be entirely at his disposal, after this convincing 
proof of his infinite love towards you? I do 
not think you could: for in that he hath given 
his life for you, it is a proof plain enough to 
leave no doubt of his love towards you; and 
that this love will always incline him attentively 



Tlie Sealed Book 131 



to procure your welfare and happiness in 
every way. And though, in order to test you, 
he engages you in certain states, where, for 
aught that appears, your destruction and ruin is 
inevitable, this will only be in order to refine 
your love, and put your fidelity to the trial. For 
if you would be made worthy of his fellowship 
and familiar converse, yea, if you wish to become 
the beloved companion and brother of this mild 
and bountiful king, your saviour, can that be 
done any other way than by first putting your 
fidehty and love to the trial ; as he too on his 
part hath put his love for you to the test, by 
sealing it with his blood ? Would one say, then, 
that this poor helpless child's love for the king's 
son, who designs to raise him to the dignity of 
being his brother, would be worthy of the good 
prince, if, after having received the good offices 
before-mentioned, it came to pass that in all the 
steps that he should demand of this indigent child 
— in which he would have no other view but in 
his turn to put the child's love and his fidelity to 
the test, and by those trials and temptations to 
render him meet and worthy to become his 
brother — if, I say, the poor creature, at every trial 
that should be presented to him, were thinking 
incessantly of his own interest, so that as soon 



132 Tlie Ne-w Life in Christ Jesus 

as the things that concern him did not suit with 
the views and ideas he had formed to himself 
(concerning the manner in which the king's 
son should cause him to be treated, and of the 
road he should make him to be conducted in, 
to bring him to the royal palace), he were to give 
way to anxiety, care, vexations, inquietudes, dis- 
trust, and fear lest they should not conduct him 
the right road, and that the road they led him 
might terminate in his ruin ? Would not all 
this be doing an injury to the love and fidelity 
of the king his friend? Would he not render 
himself unworthy to obtain that privilege by the 
superfluous care and concern he had for him- 
self? On the contrary, if from a generous love 
and total resignation to this good king, he 
forgets himself and all that concerns him, thinks 
neither on the road they lead him, nor on the 
dangers that are to be met with therein, nor 
where it shall end : if he is employed in nothing 
but the love of his king, and the desire of being 
devoted to him without bounds or measure; if 
he plunges himself without any hesitation into 
all the dangers he meets in his way, persuaded 
as he is that his king and friend protects him, 
and knows well how to keep and defend him; 
and if he finds himself so surrounded with 



Tlie Sealed Book 



133 



enemies that his ruin seems to him to be un- 
avoidable ; so that the love he has for his king- 
makes him to say, / c/ieerfully sacrifice myself to 
peris Ii for the love I bear to 7ny king: is not this 
the love that suits our helpless child, and the 
sentiments he ought to have for his king and 
deliverer, who designs to honour him with the 
favour of making him his brother and beloved 
companion? Again, when he finds himself so 
environed with enemies that his ruin seems 
inevitable, and cries : If it is more for the 
glory of my king that I perish, if he thinks 
that more advisable than to save me, be it so. 
The love I have for him makes me happy to 
submit to his will ! I know that he is powerful 
and mighty to save me from the danger I am 
in ! But if that is not his pleasure, neither is it 
mine ! " Will any one believe that this lover shall 
be a loser in being thus disposed towards his 
king ? Can this possibly displease him ? Will 
it not engage him rather to exert all his power 
to protect and save this generous lover from the 
hand of his enemies? Doubtless it will; and 
his salvation will be so much the more certain 
that he has renounced it. He will crown his 
fidelity and constancy with so much the greater 
glory, as he had forgot himself, and all claim 



134 The Neiu Life in Christ Jestis 

and pretension to the happiness that was 
promised him, and the honour he was to be 
admitted to. 

5. The lovers of themselves (who have only 
selves in view in all they do, and in all the 
service they render to God, in abstaining from 
evil and practising the good) have the boldness 
to condemn those generous souls ; but it is 
because they do not comprehend nor understand 
them. Let them go to school to Love itself, it 
will teach them this lesson, without, wranghng or 
dispute. Our most adorable Saviour means to 
inculcate nothing else but what I have shown, 
when He proposes to us to forsake all thtJigs i?i 
order to save our soul (Mark viii. 34, 35), teaching 
us how He came into the woidd to save it (John 
iii. 16, 17), and how He lays down His life for 
that end. He proposes to us, that after having 
forsaken all, we must also forsake and lose 
oursel\5es : Whosoever shall seek to save his life 
shall lose it: a?id ivhosoever shall lose his life 
shall preserve it (Luke xvii. 33). Which shows 
that this adorable Saviour allows those who are 
willing to be His faithful followers to be put 
into trials and temptations, in which they are 
obliged to make this sacrifice of the life of 
self, and that it is by this very sacrifice that 



The Sealed Book 135 



He conducts them to the true salvation. This 
is it which purifies their love, and renders them 
worthy to obtain the favour of becoming the 
brothers of Jesus Christ, after having passed 
through the suffering of this utter and final 
destruction of self. This affliction renders their 
love so pure, that they reflect no more on rew^ards 
or punishments ; love suffices them ; that love 
uniteth them to their well-beloved Jesus, and 
that union is happiness enough for them, 

6. Those souls do incessantly experience that 
the union to the will of their Divine Brother is 
their paradise, and that it is in this union that 
they are united to Himself ; and it is this ex- 
perience that makes them say they would choose 
rather to be i7t hell with the will of God^ than in 
Paradise without His wilL Yes, doubtless ; for 
the will of God would make a hell a Paradise ; 
and disunion from that will, which is none other 
than self-will, would render Paradise a hell. 
Thus it is with pure love. 



CHAPTER XV 



THE DIVINE JUSTICE 

The justice of God requires that we hate ourselveS; and 
love God only — We must render to God all that we 
have usurped from Him — The Divine justice makes 
our sovereign felicity — Those that are in the prayer of 
meditation should abstain from judging of these 
things. 

I. O GLORY of my God ! it is Thee alone that 
I adore, that I love, and that I revere. Let 
every other object be banished; for Thou hast 
smitten me with Thy love ; I can regard nothing 
but Thee ; and everything that doth not respect 
Thee alone is wearisome to me ; I turn my back 
upon it. Do Thyself justice, O my God; do 
Thyself justice of all our usurpations. All 
appertains to Thee ; all comes from Thee ; let 
all return to Thee : is there anything more just ? 
He that can dispute it with Thee is not wise, 
doth not learn to love and honour Thee as he 
ought. 

136 



Tlie Divine Justice 137 

2. What is this justice of God, then, which 
the souls inflamed with the Divine fire of His 
love do require; which they call to their assist- 
ance in the holy indignation with which they 
are animated against themselves ? If a?iy ?na?i 
come to Me and hate ?iot . . . his ow?i life also, 
he ca?i7iot be My disciple (Luke xiv. 26). What 
else is this hating of oneself than a turning 
away from ourselves, in order to apply to and 
employ ourselves with the object which we ac- 
knowledge to be alone amiable, and worthy to 
be loved, worthy alone to engage us? For 
what we hate, we forget willingly, we disengage 
ourselves from it the most we can \ and if 
we dare not have a hand in its ruin, vet we are 
glad when another destroys and ruins what we 
hate. 

3. Thus operates the Pure and Divine Love 
in the hearts that are possessed of it. That 
sharp-sighted Love shows them their frightful 
deformity in so clear a light, that they cannot 
but conceive a horror for themselves. Self-love, 
which is so deeply rooted in them, they see very 
plainly ; they are convinced of the injustice of 
their pretensions and intentions in the best 
things. That Pure Love shows them how them- 
selves are their only aim in all the good they do, 



138 TJie New Life in Christ Jesus 

and in all the evil they endeavour to avoid, 
That it is their own interest they have in view 
in the repentance and sorrow which they express 
to God for the faults and sins they have com- 
mitted, and do commit ; in the pardon they ask 
of God ; in the desire they have of obtaining it ; 
in order to escape hell and gain Paradise, or 
eternal salvation : the souls, I say, in whom the 
pure love of God displays itself are very sensible 
of this procedure in every instance, of having 
their own interest in view, and that their happi- 
ness in time and in eternity is their sole, or at 
least chief aim, with the desire of avoiding 
chastisements and obtaining rewards. 

4. The Pure Love thus burning in their hearts 
animates them by that view, with a holy hatred 
against themselves, and against everything that 
regards their interest, though among the general- 
ity of men these views are allowable. But the 
law of Pure Love is quite different, and the 
soul in which it reigns, moved with jealousy 
for the object it loves, cries out, Nothing hut 
God ! God alone and His glory I His interest^ 
a?id His aio7ie ! Let all the rest be banished 
from my heart ; I can give it no entrance ; 
for it were unworthy of God. I am His at 
discretion : may His love, as a devouring fire, 



The Divine Justice 139 

consume everything that hath not Him alone 
for its aim and object ] for I have renounced 
myself. I can have no regard for myself, nor 
love myself any more; He hath ravished me 
with His Divine Love. I can do no less 
than refer myself to His discretion without any 
other care." 

5. But in order to explain this matter a little 
more clearly, let us see what the justice of God 
is. Now with relation to Him, it is none other 
than the attribute of His divinity which demands 
or requires that all the good and the honour 
that has by usurpation been robbed from Him 
be restored to Him. This also is what His wis- 
dom and His power are at work about, namely, 
to bring back all things under His obedience ; to 
dispossess those that have seized His goods for 
themselves, and to resume the possession of 
them. There is nothing in this but what is just 
and reasonable ; it is what every man practises 
as oft as he hath occasion and power, namely, to 
recover his own goods which have been usurped 
and robbed from him. This is that justice which 
God desires to do to Himself, with respect to 
men and spirits that have shaken off the yoke of 
His government, and are become proprietors of 
themselves, and have taken possession (in order 



140 The Nezu Life i?i Christ Jesus 

to dispose of them as their own) of all the good 
things which God has given them the use of. 
but whereof He is the sovereign proprietor 
and master, and we only the dispensers, or those 
that have the administration of them in and 
under His dependence. It is, then, for bringing 
about this restitution that God is at work in 
every one of us, whom He hath converted to 
Himself. And this labour extends universally 
towards all men ; this is that justice which He 
must necessarily do to Himself. And when that 
justice is satisfied and accomplished, all shall 
be subject to Him in heaven and in earth, for if 
there were no self-will there would neither be 
Hell nor Devil. 

6. On our part, when the love of God takes 
possession of our heart, and that like a fire, and 
a most clear and pure light, it dissipates by de- 
grees the darkness which sin hath produced, in 
filling all of us with self-love and with ourselves : 
this light, I say, dissipating our darkness (pro- 
portionably as it seizes on our hearts), makes us 
to see the justice and equity of this claim and 
the Divine justice, in desiring restitution to be 
made to God of what we have wrested from 
Him. And this view renders us zealous in 
behalf of God against ourselves, and ah our 



The Divine Justice 141 

usurpations, and causes us to enlist ourselves 
on His side, and to surrender ourselves to the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, to the end we may 
restore to God whatever is shown to us we have 
robbed Him of. 

7. It is the pure love of God that produces 
this effect in our hearts ; it hath God alone in 
view, and hath neither limit nor measure. The 
soul saith: "My God, here I am ; I acknow- 
ledge by the light which Thou makest to shine 
in my heart, that I am a robber. I have seized, 
I have robbed the goods that belong unto Thee ; 
which goods are myself, and everything I 
possess. I have disposed of them at my plea- 
sure, and when Thou didst me the favour to 
convert me unto Thee, in that conversion I 
had not so much in view m.y duty towards 
Thee, and what I owe Thee, as my Master, 
my sovereign Lord and Creator, to Whom I 
belong, as the fear of hell wherewith Thou 
threatenest those who do not obey Thy laws, 
and the reward Thou promisest to those who 
submit to them. In all this I acknowledge that 
I propose myself as my aim, and not Thee. 
Confessing this injustice, I deliver up myself 
unto Thee, and will have no other motive in 
my submission but the duty I owe Thee. I 



142 The Nezv Life in Christ Jesus 

surrender myself to Thy good pleasure, and will 
have no regard any more either to punishment 
or reward. It is enough for me to return under 
Thy dependence, as I ought to do. This is the 
natural order in which Thou hast created me, 
and whereinto I am willing to enter again. 
It is in this order and dependence only that I 
find the peace of my soul, without thinking of 
any other thing. Do Thyself justice then, and 
resume all that I have wrested or stolen from 
Thee. No mercy ; mercy is for sinners. I 
love Thy justice ; for it makes restitution of all 
unto Thee." 

8. It is the zeal which these souls feel, jealous 
of the interests of God, that makes them say. 
They desire no 7nercy ; that 7nercy is for sinners. 
The meaning is, that when a man is in a 
state of sin, at the time that he feels his 
conscience racking him, he cries to God, begs 
forgiveness and mercy, and desires earnestly 
to be delivered from the stings that torment 
him. He is afraid of chastisement, and his 
state still very impure, and having a strong 
mixture of self-love, as we have said, makes him 
to act thus. He is incapable of anything else 
at that time ; his state suggests no other pro- 
cedure, and he is for the present agreeable to 



The Divine Justice 143 

God, Who doth not reject his prayer, but 
heareth it, provided he be sincere in the reso- 
lution he makes to cease from doing evil, and to 
learn to do well. What is that mercy then which 
God grants to him? It is the feeling which 
his appeased conscience gives him, that he is 
received into favour; nevertheless, upon con- 
dition that he persevere in good, that he suffer 
himself to be confirmed therein more and more 
by the spirit of grace, in following its attractions. 

9. But w^hen the soul is arrived at that degree 
of Pure Love of which we have spoken, he 
says, having himself no more in view^ any 
manner of way, but God alone and His justice : 
he says then, animated with a Divine zeal 
against himself, No more 7nerc}\ it is for sinners, 
it tolerates still in them many selfnesses and 
selfish views, with regard to the punishments 
which God threatens, and the rewards which He 
promises. This mercy makes itself to be felt 
at the heart, or it quiets the conscience, though 
the heart be still very full of impurity ; it toler- 
ates and passes over all that, and assures the 
man that he is received into the favour of God. 
But though that be good in its season (the 
person's state to which God accommodates 
Himself allowing him to know nothing more 



144 ^/^^ A^^^i; Life tn Christ Jesus 

perfect), these things are no more for me," saith 
the Beloved of his God. ^' O Justice of my 
God, that restorest all to Him ; it is to Thee 
I surrender myself, without regarding myself 
any more ! It is Thou that makest all my 
happiness, my felicity, my salvation, and my 
peace ; for in Thee alone I find the repose of 
my heart. For the Divine Love hath brought 
things to that pass by its flames, that it hath 
driven me out of myself. I am no more, and 
I live no more but in Him Whom I love ! It 
is my God Who reigns alone in my heart and 
soul. He hath banished all self-interest by His 
Divine Love. Who can hinder Him ? Why is 
He so lovable, that in looking at Him one 
forgets oneself? that one desires no more favour, 
but to lose all, and be lost in Him, without any 
other care, or any other concern?"' 

10. It is to be observed, that as long as souls 
are in that state of prayer which they call the 
prayer of vieditatioii^ they are generally unable 
to comprehend that disinterested love whereof 
I write here. They act in their state of prayer 
in a reasoning way. They consider the promises 
which God has made in Holy AVrit to those 
that fear Him, and keep His commandments. 
These considerations encourage them to perfect 



The Divine Justice 145 

themselves in virtue : their meditation on the 
benefits of God invites them to love Him with 
a love full of gratitude : they labour to inflame 
their desires towards Him by a thousand re- 
flections, and such-like considerations. They 
view on the other side the troubles and mis- 
fortunes which sin and vice draw after them in 
this life, and eternal damnation in the next : 
they thereby conceive a horror at them, and 
endeavour to abstain from them. And this is 
their labour, and what they teach and recom- 
mend to others : they collect all the passages 
of Holy Scripture that make the subject of 
their meditations and prayers. It is in these 
exercises they labour to perfect themselves, and 
are at work about their sanctification. And 
these things are very good; they ought to be 
faithful therein. 

II. If they are not called to a higher state 
of prayer, neither will they comprehend it. And 
if they are humble and docile, all that can be 
expected from them is, that they do not judge 
in the matter, but leave it to God and to His 
judgment. But if they are deeply involved in 
selfness, and wedded to their own opinion, it 
is not surprising if they condemn, reject, and 

strike out against what they do not understand. 

L 



146 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

But by such conduct they render themselves 
incapable of obtaining the grace of God, in 
order to enter upon a more perfect state of 
prayer, and to learn to know Him more, and 
the foundation of their corruption, and to love 
Him with greater purity. 



CHAPTER 



XVI 



THE WILL OF GOD 

It is difticult to know the will of God — Divers sorts of it 
to be known — How one may know it — Entire resigna- 
tion to the will of God, and an entire void, is the best 
disposition for that purpose — Not to precipitate any- 
thing — To abide in our vocation — The will of God 
displays itself in the centre of the soul — How we 
ought to behave here — A spiritual guide is a valuable 
gift of God — One must proceed cautiously with regard 
to internal words that are distinct. 

I. Teach vie to do Thy luill^ for Tho?i art 
?ny God ; Thy Spirit is good: lead 7ne i?ito the 
lafid of upright?iess (Ps. cxliii. lo). This is the 
prayer of the holy prophet David, and that of 
all souls desirous to renounce their own will, 
knowing by their experience that it is quite 
naught, and that the will of God alone is good. 
This gives them a sincere desire to fulfil the 
Divine will. But the same experience showing 
them that they are incapable of knowing and 
distinguishing that will from their own, or from 
147 



148 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

things that are presented to their minds under 
a most specious appearance, as being infalHbly 
the will of God, amidst the distrust they have 
of themselves and of all other spirits, they beg 
of God that His good Spirit may lead them, 

2. O how necessary indeed is this petition, 
because of the many voices that call themselves 
the voice of God; that under the most glaring 
appearance outwardly, and inwardly by most 
lively sensations, covered with the veil of a 
most flaming zeal, incite us to believe that they 
are the voice of God, and His will ; that invite 
us to undertake such and such things, and 
persuade us that God requires it of us. All 
these cases, which are numberless in their 
diversity as well as their extent, cause abund- 
ance of pains, disquietudes, and cares to a soul 
truly desirous to do the will of God, and which 
finds no certainty in itself, nor light enough to 
determine and ascertain without doubt whether 
the thing which now presents itself is the will 
of God, which it should endeavour to execute ; 
or that it is not. 

3. This is not one of the least perplexities to 
a soul that hath no other desire but to live 
for God, and to be His without reserve. I do 
not speak here of the will of God in general 



The Will of God 



149 



that invites us to repentance, to cease from 
doing evil, and to learn to do well ; to abstain 
from sin and vice, and to practise virtue : for 
it is past all doubt or hesitation that we must 
abstain from the one, and practise the other, to 
wit, virtue and goodness. But I speak here of 
particular cases that occur daily, unlocked for, 
to a soul devoted to God, and desirous more 
and more to depend upon Him in all things ; 
to whom there is presented a thousand little 
things, and some of importance, which in them- 
selves are neither good nor bad, and become 
such only by the principle that sets us at work. 
I speak of things that often have the appearance 
of being very good and profitable for the glory 
of God, and the good or salvation of our 
neighbour, or our own spiritual advancement. 
It is in these things that it is often difficult to 
discern which is the will of God, and to distin- 
guish it from that which has only the appearance 
of it. 

4. Well-disposed souls would fain acquire a 
certainty in those things after different manners. 
Some of these take their certainty, on which 
they determine themselves, from the counsel 
that is given them, or the decision of a person 
in whom they confide, and whom they befieve 



1 50 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

to be in a condition of knowing the will of God 
better than themselves. Others ground their 
certainty on some distinct word which is spoken 
to them internally, and makes itself to be under- 
stood by some impression on their internal 
senses, which they take, though falsely, to be 
the inward man ; and the voice that pronounces 
these words they take for the voice of God. 
Others cast lots, and thereby determine them- 
selves. In all these ways of seeking to know 
the will of God, there may be something that is 
good, and therefore they are not to be rejected. 
I believe their certainty or truth depends on 
the disposition of the person who wants to know 
the w^ill of God. Nevertheless, there may be a 
strong mixture of delusion therein, as daily 
experience testifies. 

5. I am of opinion, therefore, that the infallible 
way of knowing the will of God is, first to have 
a heart disengaged from every other desire and 
intention, but that of sacrificing itself without 
reserve to that holy will, without any other 
view than to follow that holy will, without 
regard to profit or any interest whatever. In 
a word, we must lay down for a foundation, a 
will entirely free from all manner of bias, that 
has nothing but God alone, and His will, purely 



The Will of God 



and solely in view. Taking this foundation for 
granted, it will be easy for a soul, on all sorts 
of occasions, to know the will of God, or what 
He requires of him. If he abandons himself to 
Divine providence in outward things, taking as 
coming from the hand of God what happens to 
him by means of the creatures or from events 
which often fall out unforeseen : if, besides 
this, he takes heed to the profound and secret 
bias or instinct of his heart, what it inclines him 
to; this instinct of the heart wi l not fail him 
if it be a person already advanced in spiritual life, 
for it is his inmost heart where God resides, 
that inclines him, and he will find by experience 
that God will direct by His Providence, or 
manage all things from without in such manner, 
that the attraction or instinct of his inmost 
heart may have its effect. He will wait patiently 
till all is unravelled, will precipitate nothing, 
and will remain equally poised, and free from 
every desire and every inclination. God often, 
in order to purify him, and to make him flexible 
and pliant, will permit the face of affairs to 
change many times, so that the soul is tossed 
on all sides, tempted and afflicted every manner 
of way ; that a thousand contrary events befall 
him, which seem to operate quite the contrary 



152 The Neiv Life hi Christ Jesus 

to what he had expected and hoped, and what 
his inward bias indined him to. But if he 
remains in tranquilHty, forlorn and apparently 
abandoned in this darkness, but always firm in 
the intention of renouncing all self-will in order 
to follow^ the will of God, without choice or 
reserve, God will conduct him securely, and 
will Himself very surely accomplish that holy 
will which he desires. To ensure the more 
perfect accomplishment of His will in the 
Christian's heart is indeed the only reason 
w^hy God allows Him to remain for a season 
apparently abandoned in darkness. 

6. But let us take good heed to ourselves : 
let us present ourselves before God with sincerity 
and without hypocrisy ! we that say incessantly, 
O that I kneiu the will of God, I zvould obey it 
cheerfully I Let us examine ourselves, I say, 
we who pretend to have so great a desire to 
know it, who ask it of others in the counsel we 
will needs have them to give us ! If we will 
do justice against ourselves, shall we not find 
that we have some secret interest that pushes 
us on ? We perhaps would fain shake off the 
yoke of a cross which is too heavy to bear ; we 
shun contempt and loss ; w^e covet some advan- 
tage either with regard to temporal or spiritual 



The Will of God 



153 



things ; a thousand subtile views of self-interest 
creep into that which we desire to do, or that 
we are afraid of, and from which we would fain 
excuse ourselves. God alone, in the bottom of 
our heart, will abundantly discover to us in 
silence the wiles of our own heart ; if, as I have 
said, we have nothing but God only, and the 
accomplishment of His holy will in view. 

7. But in truth, if we would learn to know His 
will, what purity of intention, what separation from 
ourselves, must we not have ! What an entire 
passivity and death to every desire of our own, 
even with respect to the best things ! A total 
sacrifice, entire and without reserve, with regard 
to time and eternity, is what puts us in a dis- 
position that that holy will may be perfectly 
accomplished in us, as Jesus Christ hath taught 
us to pray, that His will viay be done on earth as 
it is in Heaven, 

8, How many oversights and false steps are 
made in this point, with the best intentions in 
the world ! But if we inquire into the cause, 
it will be found that we have had our own 
interest in view, and that it has mixed in the 
ajfair : I say, our own spiritual interest ; — that 
zeal, that sensibility, and that relish in the in- 
ternal senses that does generally seduce them : 



154 T^^^ Ahiu Life in Christ Jesus 

self-desire to do something for the glory of God, 
in which desire, that of being somewhat, and of 
making some figure in spiritual matters, in one's 
own eyes, and those of others, is secretly the 
principal motive that sets us at work. To which 
may be joined a thousand suggestions of Satan, 
under pious pretexts, and delusions of other 
virtuous persons, who without knowing it hurry 
us on to do something that has a glittering ap- 
pearance, but which hath for its principle, not the 
attraction of the Spirit of God, but our own spirit. 

9. Firstly, therefore, a heart free from all 
desire, that cleaves to God alone, and desires 
nothing but Him, and the accom_plishment of His 
will by His holy Spirit in us, is what is necessary 
in order to do or to know the will of God. 
Secondly, to guard against precipitation, in 
accomplishing or doing what we believe to be 
the will of God \ but to leave Providence to act 
by outward events. This conduct will defend 
us against delusion, and put us in a condition 
to do and to suffer that holy will, and give us 
the true peace of the inmost heart, which we 
find in the Divine order, or in the situation 
wherein we are at the present moment, in the 
order of that holy will to which we have sacri- 
ficed ourselves without reserve. 



The Will of God 



155 



10. The souls that are thus sacrificed to God, 
and to His will, without reserve, do not estimate 
things according as they are in themselves, their 
excellency, sanctity, or sublimity. The least 
trifling action, the most common, to which the 
will of God applies them by the order of His 
Providence, they prefer infinitely to the most 
pompous and shining achievements. Thus, for 
example, they w^ould choose rather to lead a 
simple and common life, and to be employed 
in some lawful work or vulgar occupation at 
home, in the Divine will and order, than to go 
upon a mission to preach the Gospel to the 
savage nations, with a good intention, or at 
the persuasion of others. Their profound 
attraction within will cause them to know what 
the Divine call points at, by inclining them 
thereto. But for want of following that attraction 
of our inmost heart, we often take the false for 
the true, because the false has a greater show, 
and gives more gratification to our sensitive 
appetites or our nature, which is covetous of 
spiritual relishes, or what we take to be such. 
We arc not willing to die to all these things, 
that we may live in spirit to God ; which, how- 
ever, is absolutely necessary. 

11. For those, then, whose hearts are still 



156 Tlie Ne-w Life in Clirist Jesus 

divided, who have views about themselves, 
about their own interest, a thousand reserves 
w^iich they will not yet sacrifice to God ; as 
to those, I say, God passes over many things 
which He tolerates, in expectation of becoming 
by degrees master of their hearts. He humours 
some good disposition that He perceives in 
them : He often preserves them from giving 
in to the most hurtful, by permitting them that 
which is not the best ; and they often take that 
toleration for His will. Thus it is that God 
deals with much lonQ--sufferint{ and conde- 
scendence towards men, seeking to draw them 
after Him with so much love. But the mis- 
fortune is, that men are so blind, so full of self- 
love and their own interest, that they do not so 
much as know that there is any hurt in this self- 
love, and take the assistance of God, His toler- 
ation, the admonitions and protection of good 
angels, whose guardianship they experience, by 
their often diverting mischief from falling on their 
heads, and preserving them therefrom, inclining 
them to what is less evil in the sight of God, 
than w^hat they would have done ; they take, I 
say, all these things for so many tokens that 
they arc in high favour with God, are His darl- 
ings, and that He conducts them according to 



The Will of God 



157 



His will. In which they are much mistaken ; 
since what God does for them is only out of 
great pity and condescension, in hopes that 
they will amend, and be entirely converted unto 
Him, to which the good angels exhort them 
inwardly in their conscience, if they will give 
attention thereto, and not suffer themselves to 
be extremely blinded by their self-love, in flatter- 
ing themselves with the goodness of their state. 

12. As for the souls that are sincere, and 
desirous to live according to the will of God, 
and to do and to suffer it on all occasions, 
and who are not yet sufficiently advanced in 
spiritual experience to know the attraction of the 
inmost heart (whence the Divine oracles are 
uttered, by inclining the soul in a most subtile, 
profound, delicate manner), these, I say, cannot 
walk more securely, than by abandoning them- 
selves to Providence, that it may steer their 
course. It will direct all things for their advance- 
ment, and be the will of God to them. The less 
they strive to know it by their own spirit and 
discernment, the more care will that Providence 
take of them. The more simply and humbly 
they behave themselves, without affecting or 
seeking after anything extraordinary, continuing 
in the duty which their station and condition 



158 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

engages them to, discharging the same faithfully 
according to the will of God, which they know ; 
the more securely will they advance though in 
a continual renunciation of themselves, through 
a thousand difficulties and stumbling-blocks, 
that thwart and oppose their own spirit, which 
often represents to them certain states wherein 
they should have fewer hindrances, and more 
helps for their perfection and spiritual advance^ 
ment. If they offer up and refer all these 
representations to God and His providence, 
that He may Himself try and examine if it is 
His will that they should alter their condition ; 
and keep themselves passive waiting till God 
Himself direct and conduct all things; if they 
persevere in expectation of His help in the 
things that pinch them ; they shall experience 
that those that trust i?i Him are 7iever ashamed 
(Ps. XXV. 2) ; that it is not in vain that they have 
put their confidence in Him, and that He will 
conduct all their affairs far more wisely and 
better than they should have dared to hope 
for. Their heart will rejoice and be fortified in 
confidence and love towards Him. 

13. And in case it be necessary, God will not 
suffer them to be without a faithful and experi- 
enced friend to assist and supply their necessity. 



The Will of God 



159 



and to counsel them according as their state 
requires, if they are humble and self-denied 
enough to believe and follow him. This is a 
great grace and gift of God, which He vouch- 
safes those whom He would advance quickly 
in the way of perfection. But it must be God 
that gives us such a friend, without which, if we 
have one of our own choosing, and that hath not 
the necessary grace to counsel and conduct us 
aright, he will be more hurtful than profitable 
to us. 

14. As for those extraordinary ways which 
some make use of to know the will of God, 
and to regulate their conduct by distinct and 
internal words; though God vouchsafes them, 
by the ministration of good angels, it is very 
dangerous to rest in them, and he that does it 
may easily fall into a thousand illusions. For 
though these words be good while they proceed 
from good angels, and it is then the duty of the 
soul to receive them with humility, and to make 
that use of them which pleases God ; yet the 
soul hath reason to be much upon its guard, not 
to covet these things. It must get beyond them, 
and cleave to God alone above all things ; for 
such words may likewise proceed from bad 
angels, and thus many are deceived. 



i6o The New Life in Christ Jesus 

15. God grant us humble hearts, disengage 
us from oursekes, and from all interest of our 
own ; dispose us to receive His pure love into 
our hearts, and teach us Himself by His holy 
Spirit to do His will. It is Thou alone that 
canst do it, O Lord Jesus. Amen. 



CHAPTER XVII 



A DANGEROUS PASSAGE 

Consolations in sensible faith retard us — We must re- 
nounce them — God deprives us of them that He may 
conduct us into blind, absolute, or obscure faith — Pains 
of the night of obscure faith difficult to bear — Many 
fall oft, or go astray — God alone is able here to preserve 
us therefrom, and does it — An experienced guide is an 
excellent help — He that goes astray in this road ought 
to renew his resignation to the Divine justice, and to 
bear internal reproaches vvith tranquillity — This is for 
those that pass from the sensible into obscure faith, 
and not for novices. 

I. It was showed me how that which hinders 

the progress of most weU-disposed persons in 

the w^ay of perfection is, because they do not 

become truly spiritual ; that they are ignorant 

for the most part of what the true spiritual state 

consists, though they talk much about it, and 

would fain pass for knowing all about it ; that 

they do not take the true road that should 

forward them tlicrein, namely, that of truly 
l6l M 



1 62 The Nezu Life in Christ Jesus 

renouncing not only all external things, but 
especially that tawdry form of spirituality which 
they are acquainted with, I mean that which is 
fed and gratified by the internal senses, which is 
all they know. They believe that what they 
receive in those internal senses is true spiritu- 
ality; the sentiments, consolations, views, and 
fervours that flow into their internal senses, these 
they accept as making up true spirituality. 

2. But these are merely graces and favours 
which God communicates for encouraging weak 
souls to walk in the way of self-denial, and to pass 
on further. God gives them these relishes, not 
that they may rest in them, but in order to their 
further progress. He gives them because of our 
want of faith and confidence in Him above all 
these sweetnesses, to which we must absolutely 
die, if we would attain to the true spirituality, 
which is in the inmost depth or heart of the soul, 
and is far distant from all that we commonly call 
spirituality, and which I here call the voice of 
the internal senses. 

3. Now when souls do not aspire to know 
anything better and more profound, God with- 
draws these sensible relishes after a certain space 
of time, in which the soul ought to have acquired 
strength and courage enough to abandon itself 



A Dangerous Passage 163 

to the guidance of God in blind, absolute, and 
obscure faith, which is the thing He desires to 
bring about by withdrawing from the soul all 
those consolations and sensible devotions that 
allure and render it sensual and dainty, and 
would entirely corrupt it if He did not withdraw 
them. But alas, when the soul is deprived of and 
weaned from these things, it not unfrequently 
grows inconsolable, and beHeves all is lost. 

4. Oftentimes many fall back and return to 
the love of this present world : others stop 
short for want of courage to allow themselves to 
be led into the darkness in the desert of faith, 
which seems so frightful to them that they dare 
not enter into it, and continue languishing all 
their life long, without enteriiig 2?ito the irue rest 
promised to the childre?i of God (Heb. iv. 5), always 
in anguish, in vexation, and in uncertainty. 

5. Others, having lost their sensible consola- 
tions, entirely give over internal prayer, and 
content themselves to live like other folks, and 
look upon all that formerly passed within them 
as pleasant dreams. They become as it were 
deaf again to the internal voices, and consider 
others who prize them, who still enjoy these 
sweet consolations and lively sentiments, as 
harmless innocent people, but of a poor genius, 



164 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

whom they pity. These are their thoughts, 
though they do not speak out, but make a 
fashion of approving the interior life. 

6. All this proceeds from nothing else but 
that they have not at the beginning of their 
conversion from sin to grace laid a good 
foundation, and that they have not set out in 
the true path that leads to true spirituality ; 
that they have not accustomed themselves to 
live by faith and resignation to God, in purely 
relinquishing themselves in His hands without 
terms. This is that good foundation on the 
rock which cannot be shaken by any tempest ; 
namely, the entire abandoning of ourselves 
into the hands of God, to Whom we sur- 
render at discretion, desiring nothing but Him, 
and making all our pretensions to centre in 
the accomplishment of His will, and in the 
renunciation of all interest of our own, all con- 
solations and self-gratifications, outward and 
inward; accepting, without resting in them, all 
those consolations that the Divine bounty shall 
think fit to give, all the lights and views which 
God favours us with, as things accessory ; valuing 
nothing but Him, and willing nothhig but His 
will. This is that self-denied life that one must 
lead, and which will conduct us infallibly to 



A Dangerous Passage 165 

true spirituality, which is nothing less than the 
manifestation of Jesus Christ in us, or His 
revelation. Whoever walks thus in a continual 
renunciation of himself, and all his own interest, 
temporal and spiritual,^ as conceived in himself 
(that is to say, w^hat we take by a false idea to 
be our interest, though the true interest for us 
is, of course, to abandon ourselves to God), 
such an one cannot fail to arrive at true 
spirituality. 

7. It is very true, that when it pleases God to 
drain this source of consolations, of sentiments 
and lights that nourished and enlightened the 
soul, making it to burn with a fervency that 
animated it with great force, and filled it with 
courage to combat and despise the world and 
earthly things ; it is true, I say, when all this 
forsakes us, and nothing follows but languish- 
ments, weakness, and aversion to continue in 
that austere life we had embraced with so much 
eagerness and rehsh, that finding nothing distinct 
in ourselves any more, to replace that force and 
that relish which hath abandoned us (the centre 
of the soul not being as yet opened as the Holy 
of Holies), then the soul knows not where it is ; 
and as I have said, all that is past seems to it to 
^ "Compris en luy meme." 



1 66 The New Life in Chdst Jesus 

be a pleasant dream, a drunkenness from which 
it is recovered. The enemy conspiring with the 
soul's reason indicates to it many excesses into 
which it has fallen, intoxicated as it is with 
the heat of its zeal, and makes it even to call 
in question spiritual life itself. It knows not 
w^hat to do; all is disgusting and wearisome 
to it, 

8. O how dangerous is this rock, against 
which many have struck, and been fatally ship- 
wrecked ! Many fall here into libertinism, if 
their constitution inclines them thereto. Having 
tasted the sweets of the inward senses, they 
cannot have but a disgust for anything less 
than these. Having seen by the light that 
has been communicated to them the imperfec- 
tion and insufficiency as well as the degeneracy 
of the outward forms of worship practised 
in the several religions, they find nothing 
therein any more, wherewithal to bear up and 
support themselves. And the enemy making 
them likewise to suspect the internal ways, 
the truth and reality of which is obscured 
and hid from them at this time, they fall into 
licentiousness, and become or are in danger of 
becoming atheists. Or they are hooked in by 
all sorts of seducing spirits, that fail not to offer 



A Dangerous Passage 167 

themselves to the soul inwardly and outwardly, 
presenting their merchandise to it, promising it 
liberty, though themselves are the slaves of 
Satan, or of their own selfness. Reason is the 
most dangerous enemy in these straits, or in 
this state, for such as before their conversion 
led a wise and virtuous life, according to the 
world ; and it easily draws the soul into its 
ancient way of living, making it shut the gate 
for ever against all the internal attractions 
of the Spirit of Grace which disturb and 
disquiet it, and are designed to make it feel, 
by the trouble they excite within it, its un= 
healthy condition. 

9. The above are some few of the dreadful 
dangers and temptations that assault the soul 
in this state. They cannot be all described, 
because of their diversity and number, which 
experience alone can make one comprehend. 
How many doubts, how many disquiets, fears, 
and terrors, do assault the poor soul ! With 
what levity and rashness is it tempted to plunge 
headlong into the world, into libertinism, and 
to give wing to its passions that had been 
restrained for a time ; to which tlic devil, 
seconded by corrupt nature, inclines it ! 

10. Who is able to escape from so great a 



1 68 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

danger? God alone can defend and secretly 
support us, and never fails to do it; and provided 
the soul be sincere He infallibly reclaims it, 
though it has gone astray for some time. From 
such dangers few are altogether exempt : many 
indeed remaining bewildered, and wandering 
hither and thither, without finding the repose 
they seek after for many years. But God 
brings them again into the right way, often 
by some violent temptation or extraordinary 
accident which incites them anew to have their 
recourse to God with fervour and sincerity of 
heart. 

11. Those alone are happy who remain in 
absolute resignation, and so in peace and 
tranquillity during this state of uncertainty, so 
painful and troublesome to the spirit, without 
undertaking or altering anything in their conduct 
or state. For they are not in a condition to 
see clearly, and all being darkness and obscurity, 
or but a false glimmering light for their eyes, 
they cannot but mistake and fail in anything 
they undertake during that period. 

12. Specially favoured and blessed are they 
to whom God sends some holy and experienced 
person, \Aho hath himself passed these danger- 
ous straits, and has been saved from being 



A Dangerous Passage 169 

shipwrecked therein, and who can therefore give 
the soul wholesome counsel, if it has a heart 
humble and tractable enough, and willing to 
accept the counsel. And God will surely 
incline the soul's heart to receive the good 
advice which He sends, if its recourse to God 
in its trouble is attended with sincerity. 

13. But the best and safest advice for this 
state is to remain in peace, in resignation, in 
stillness and tranquillity amidst our trouble, 
our disquiet, and our inconstancy ; not to 
pursue any of those things to which our dis- 
position to disquietude, sorrow, impatience, and 
discouragement, etc., would hurry us ; but to 
wait patiently for the assistance of our Lord, 
and to support the delay of it, without seeking 
after or accepting any pretended help that may 
offer itself from any other quarter. 

14. This is a painful lesson for nature, and 
not easily practised without great docility, and 
abandoning or deserting of oneself; which is 
so much the more difficult, that a man doth 
not perceive it is to God that he resigns himself, 
but is afraid and believes rather that it is to 
his own negligence, stupidity, and sloth. This 
is difficult to bear for a soul that secretly 
burns (without knowing or being sensible of it 



I/O The New Life i7i Christ Jesus 

itself at that time) with a desire of pleasing 
God, and of advancing quickly, yea of rtinning 
and flying towards Him. To such a soul no life 
nor enterprise, though ever so painful and 
dangerous, would be any other than a refresh- 
ment and delight, provided it could believe it 
were agreeable to God. But a man must die 
to all these things, if he would arrive at the 
Divine life in this (temporal) life, and be born 
again in God, which is a beginning of the eternal 
Hfe of the blessed. 

15. Here it is, I believe, that many souls 
stick at present, w^ho have long since been 
touched by God, and have passed the straits 
of the first conversion, and wander thus without 
knowing where to rest a foot. But God will 
cause a helpful hand to be reached forth to all 
those who are sincere, and will make them to 
enter again into the good way that shall lead 
them to the sources of living waters^ to the 
heavenly Jerusale7n^ where ru?ineth a river of 
living water, wherein they may quench their 
thirst, and repose themselves. Amen, Jesu.s ! 
Come quickly. Amen ! 

16. What then shall those souls do, that 
have thus stopped short for a long time, or 
have drawn back, or are fallen off from their 



A Dangerous Passage 171 

first fervour, and have dashed against the rock 
we have here taken notice of, and whose eyes 
God openeth to discern their degeneracy and 
infidehty? There is no shorter nor surer 
remedy for them than to renew their resignation 
and donation of themseh^es wholly to God. 
But finally and definitely, not launching out 
merely into a multitude of acts or practices 
of outward religion. Such conduct would only 
serve to awaken their senses again, without 
healing the root of the disease : it would be 
but kindhng a fire of straw to make them 
rejoice for a moment ; for in a short time 
they would again be involved in new troubles, 
and plunge themselves deeper than before into 
the mire of their wanderings. No, they ought 
again to put themselves simply in the presence 
of God, in silence and resignation into His 
hands, to suffer and undergo all the inward 
burnings and remorses that torment them ; to 
abandon themselves to His justice for time 
and eternity ; to remain thus immovable, and 
destitute of all help and all hope of receiving 
any, as long as it shall please God, even to the 
hour of their death, if such be His will, trusting 
in His Love. Whoever can be generous and 
courageous enough to undergo this penance. 



172 The New Life i7t Christ Jesus 

without moving or stirring to help himself by 
his own efforts, should he die in this state, such 
an one would find the favour and unexpected 
help of our Lord to Whom alone be honour 
and glory throughout all eternity. Amen. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



MIRACLES 

Miracles of great show are for men in a sensual state — 
At present there are great miracles wrought, though 
in spirit and in secret — Men ought to be on their 
guard with respect to outward miracles. 

I. It was showed me how that, on the one 
hand, the more gross, the more sensual men have 
been, the more influenced by external things, the 
more signal and pompous have the miracles been 
that God has employed to convert them and 
manifest Himself unto them : while, on the other 
hand, the more spiritual they become, the less 
God makes use of those signal miracles to 
establish His Church or His reign. 

2. This is manifest under the Jewish economy, 
when God established and founded that Church. 
x\s that people were extremely gross, sensual, 
and altogether influenced by external things, 
He wrought shining miracles in their favour in 
Egypt, and in the wilderness. Thereafter they 
173 



1/4 The New Life in Christ Jesus 

conquered the land of Canaan with equal mira- 
cles, and after a most wonderful manner. Thus 
it was that God authorized that first external 
Church. The Divine service which He pre- 
scribed the Jews was directed to the same end. 
External ceremonies were therein multiplied 
conformably to their state, and they had need 
of them, being incapable of spiritual things. 

3. When our Lord Jesus Christ came into 
the world, He established His new Christian 
Religion, and likewise authorized it by the 
miracles that He wrought ; which though very 
splendid, as well as those which His apostles 
performed after Him, yet came far short of those 
that Moses had done in Egypt and in the desert. 
The passages through the Red Sea and through 
Jordan were of unparalleled splendour. Our 
Saviour had no need to do His miracles in that 
magnificent manner, for it was not His intention 
that His disciples should rest on things external. 
He wrought only as many as were necessary to 
disengage those that believed in Him from 
the Jewish law, and to authorize His being the 
Messiah and the Saviour of the world. More- 
over, the ignominy, the contempt and death 
which He suffered, as well as His apostles, have 
tarnished the lustre of His miracles in the eyes 



M h^ades 



175 



of men who regard only external things. The 
virtue of His Spirit operating in their hearts 
was the efficacious means that Jesus employed in 
order to convert men. And even those miracles 
which He and His apostles wrought did very 
quickly cease. 

4. And at present, that His reign is estab- 
lished in Spirit, we see still fewer of those 
wonders and miracles appearing outwardly. 
All His wonderful work is done in secret, 
in the interior of hearts, in silence. The 
things that have most show, and that make the 
greatest noise outwardly, are not those that are 
of greatest value in the sight of God, nor 
wrought purely by His Spirit. And the more 
the reign of the Holy Spirit is extended and 
established in hearts, the less shall those men 
that live only in their senses find wherewithal 
to be convinced and satisfied by their senses 
and their reason of the truth and reality of the 
operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart, Who 
nevertheless operates secretly in the interior of 
souls, works and miracles much more real, and 
greater in effect than all those which made such 
a splendid appearance outwardly in former times. 

5. But we must have our internal eyes enlight- 
ened by the internal light of the Holy Spirit, to 



1/6 The Neiu Life in Clirist Jesiis 

be ill a condition to perceive those miracles 
which it operates in ourselves and others. We 
must for that purpose live by faith : we must be 
abandoned to God. in order to be capable 
thereof. We live in an age wherein the greatest 
wonders are wrought that ever yet appeared : 
but. as I said, all in secret : the eyes of the 
flesh see none of them, and human reason 
comprehends nothing about them. 

6. The reason is. because God designs to 
establish a pure Church, disengaged from all 
that is sensual and carnal : He will have all the 
members of this Church io '^^orsJiip Hiiii in spirit, 
Old in tnutJi and reality : He will Himself live 
in them by His Holy Spirit. There are many 
who are in the way of becoming such worshippers, 
and members of this pure and spiritual Church, 
but few who have attained to that purity which 
the spirit of grace requires in order to reside in 
them in a permanent manner. He visits them, 
invites them, prepares them 1 The work is 
begun in many, and vrill be perfected in all 
those who will become tractable and humble, 
and suftcr themselves to be stripped of their 
own spirit and will, yea, of all tlie old man, and 
all his appendages. 

7. As this Church is of quite anotlicr kind 



Miracles 



177 



than the preceding ones, and much more dis- 
engaged from everything that strikes the senses, 
and all that is external, it is not surprising that 
God should likewise employ another manner 
and other means for the establishment of it. 
That He acts contrary to everything that the 
reason and spirit of man is able to comprehend 
and approve of ; that He does not make use of 
miracles which have the most splendid appear- 
ance outwardly, nor of the extraordinary and 
the marvellous, that attract the admiration of 
sensual men and astonish them; — this to me 
seems clear, because our Lord (Matt, xxiv.), 
speaking of His last coming, and of the end of 
the world, warns us not to believe those that 
shall then come in His name, doing great 
miracles, and such as should deceive the very elects 
if it were possible. And for a mark that these 
are false prophets, He gives those very same 
miraculous operations which formerly were the 
means by w^hich He authorized His own mission, 
that of His apostles. And in another place He 
answers those that shall say to Him, Have 
not we p7'ophesied i?i Thy Name^ and i?i Thy 
Name cast out devils^ and in Thy N'ame done 
?nany wonderful works ? He answers them, / 
never kneiu you (Matt. vii. 22, 23). This indeed 

N 



1/8 The New Life i7i Christ Jesus 

is very remarkable. Our Lord does not say that 
in the last times of which He speaks, He will 
send His servants, that shall do much more 
glorious miracles, even such as shall far surpass 
those of these false prophets. No, by no 
means ; He says (Matt. xxiv. 25, 26) : Believe 
fhe?n not, go 710 1 forth to see them, to run after 
the7?i, neither into the desert, 7tor here nor there : 
The kingdom of God is within you (Luke xvii. 
21). It is there that the power and efficacy of 
the Spirit of Grace will cause itself to be felt; 
the internal Spirit, the Holy Ghost, Which will 
teach you and lead you into all truth, will 
preserve you from all delusion. It is there, 
then, that we must again enter, and wait till 
our Lord shall display His reign within us. 

8. Blessed are they that persevere and wait 
for Him there ! and who amidst the temptations, 
doubts, darkness, and terrors they have to 
undergo and sustain, are not deceived, and do 
not suffer themselves to be drawn away after 
that which has a splendid and fine appearance, 
and is outwardly astonishing. God Himself 
will reveal Himself unto them, and will be their 
treasure and their portion, and will by Himself 
thus reward their perseverance. 



LISTENING TO JESUS 



A LETTER 



CONCERNING A LIFE TRULY CHRISTIAN ^ 

A life merely morally good is not a Christian life, which 
consists in the imitation of Jesus Christ, and is ac- 
quired by the Love of God. and intercourse with Him — 
Of prayer, and a life in the presence of God — We 
must give admission to the Spirit of Christ. 

My dear Sister — 

I am penetrated with gratitude towards 
you, for the great friendship and affection you 
express for me, being sensible how little I 
deserve it. But above all, the confidence which 
you tell me you repose in me, with regard to the 
state of your soul, touches me extremely. You 
say you wish for a faithful friend, that might 
assist you in the way to Heaven (which you are 
resolved to enter upon), and might forward you 
in that good design. This I assure you, my 

^ This letter produced a thorough conversion in the lady 
to whom it was addressed — the sister of the writer. 
l8i 



1 82 Listening to Jesus 

dear sister, affects my heart very sensibly, since 
it has been the most ardent of my desires these 
twenty-two years, and more, that those to whom 
God hath united me by the ties of nature, might 
seriously have the desire you express, and not 
treat the important affair of their salvation with 
so much neghgence as is commonly done, even 
by those who pass in the world for persons 
of strict virtue, and whose whole piety consists 
in labouring to lead a life morally good, and to 
abstain from those gross sins which virtuous 
people have in abhorrence : nay, alas, often 
(provided they are done in secret, and concealed 
from the sight of men), there is no great account 
made of them. If our passions are but gratified, 
we give ourselves no uneasiness that God sees 
all, even into the deepest recesses of the heart ; 
that nothing is hid from Him, but is certainly 
recorded in the register of our conscience. 'Tis 
not thus, then, that we must serve God, and you 
are convinced of it by His grace, which hath 
touched your heart. 

2. You know that the Laiiu of Love, or of 
Charity, is that which ought to regulate Chris- 
tians, those that are not such by name only, but 
desire to bear that title deservedly. You know 
wliat wc confess by this name we have taken ; 



A Letter 183 

it is, that we are the disciples, the lovers, and 
the votaries of a God who, from an excess of love 
for us, assumed the human nature ; not to enjoy 
its gratifications and pleasures, its honours, 
riches, and grandeur in this world, but to be 
despised, to live in poverty, to lead a suffering 
and hidden life, and at last to die on the Cross, 
filled with ignominy and the bitterest pains, and 
all this out of charity for us. We must then, 
from a reciprocal love, follow a God Who hath 
so much love for us ; He hath done thus, leaimig 
us a7i example that we should follow His steps 
(i Peter ii. 21). This is vdiat Love or Charity 
engages us to ; and it follows most naturally, 
that the servant is not better than his Lord (John 
XV. 20). 

3. If we love Him, we shall love to do and 
live as He did in this world. This is what He 
loved, these were His inclinations, to live thus 
poor, unknown, and despised, and to abstain 
from the pleasures and gratifications that are 
agreeable to nature, which readily delights itself 
in the use of the creatures on which it places its 
affections and love. This love is so rooted in 
our nature^ that if this string is but touched 
upon, a man fancies they are going to de})rive 
him of what is most lawful, and are about to 



184 Listening to Jesus 

tear out his very soul : he warmly defends the 
right he thinks he has, to seek to gratify himself 
lawfully, as he terms it, among the creatures. 
And yet if we simply and without partiality do 
but look upon the example of our Saviour, we 
shall find that He lived quite otherwise. He 
Who might with justice and innocence have 
enjoyed all the innocent gratifications of the 
senses, deprived Himself thereof, chose the very 
reverse, even a life of self-denial and abstinence, 
and turned away from all those things which 
men seek after with so much greediness and 
ardour — I mean pleasure, riches, and honours 
— making choice of whatever was contrary to 
these. Can we, then, with any conscience flatter 
ourselves that we love such a Benefactor and 
Saviour, call ourselves His disciples, and bear 
His Name, while yet our lives and practices are 
just the reverse of His? There is something in 
this so strongly repugnant to reason, to the 
nature of the thing, and to the manner in which 
we ought to behave to such a Benefactor, that it 
doth not require much reasoning to be con- 
vinced of the point of justice, rectitude, and 
equity ; since the deep conviction we have of it 
in our own hearts clearly shows us, if we do not 
love to conform ourselves to the manner of life 



A Letter 



185 



and practice of our most adorable Saviour and 
Benefactor, but choose to run counter to His 
inclinations and maxims, it is an incontestable 
proof that we do not love Him. OF this we are 
convinced in our own minds, in spite of all the 
false and specious arguments which the wicked 
spirit presents to our understanding, in order to 
persuade us to the contrary. 

4. But how shall we attain to those inclina- 
tions of our amiable Saviour, that we may love 
and practise what we read in the Gospel was 
loved and practised by Him? This is what man- 
kind cannot endure, it is absolutely contrary to 
our nature, the language whereof is, that man 
was made for pleasure ; that at this rate, one 
must change the order of nature, which loves 
pleasure, the honours and riches of this world. 
All this is true; corrupt nature certainly loves 
these things, and it hates their contraries, which 
are nevertheless what Jesus Christ loved and 
chose for His lot in this world, and taught us to 
practise the same, in imitation of Him. What 
must be done, then, in order to obtain this 
change of our inclination, our conJuct and 
manner of doing, that we may be able to hate 
what we formerly loved, and love what we 
hated ; namely, contempt, lowliness, denial of 



1 86 Listening to Jesus 

our own will, poverty, and in fine, sufferings? 
None but He Who hath loved these things in 
the highest degree in this world can teach us 
the lesson: 'tis Jesus Christ alone Who has the 
power and love of a God, that can do it, and 
change or create us anew by His virtue, if on 
our part we do but desire it. He is willing to 
do it, and He invites us thereto: Come unto 
J/e, all ye that labou?' and are heavy laden, and I 
10 ill give you rest. Take My yoke upon you ^ and 
learn of Me (Matt. xi. 28, 29). He will not 
do it all at once, but by degrees. We must 
resort to Him, habituate ourselves to converse 
with Him, be often or always in His company, 
that we may contract His inclinations, as one 
does with a most faithful friend, whom he most 
intimately loves and cherishes. 

5. But how shall one practise these things 
with respect to God, AMio is in hea\'en, and we 
upon earth? But hath not He said to His 
disciples (]\Iatt. xxiii. 20), / a ni cL nth you alioay, 
even unto the end of the world] Doth not Divine 
A\'isdom say : My delights were with the sons of 
jnen (Pro v. viii. 31)? If we read the Holy 
Scriptures, and if the Holy Spirit gives us the 
understanding of what we read, we shall thid 
that God desires nothing so much as to com- 



A Letter 



187 



municate Himself to men, to dwell in them as 
in His true temple, and to have as familiar an 
intercourse with them, nay, greater intimacy 
and confidence than a husband hath with his 
spouse, whom he loves tenderly, and wdth 
whom he shares his heart and the goods he 
possesses. This the Holy Scriptures are full 
of, especially the writings of St. John, the 
disciple of Charity^ or Love. 'Tis therefore a 
treasure, and an honour we ought to aspire 
after, to become thus acquainted practically 
and experimentally w^ith the Monarch of the 
universe, our good God Who is Love itself. 
'Tis in and by this intimate commerce that we 
acquire those incHnations, and learn to love and 
practise quite naturally, and without labour, 
what He loved and practised. 'Tis by the same 
commerce that we are made partakers of ike 
divine nature (2 Pet. i. 4), that we put off the old 
7nan, our old inclinations, and earthly and 
carnal affections, which have no other aim or 
end but ourselves and the things of the earth; 
and that we acquire the grace to become citi- 
zens of Heaven, even in this world, for our 
conversation is in heave fi (IMiil. iii. 20). 'Tis 
this love of God that changeth us thus into new 
men (Ephes. iv. 24), for otherwise the life and 



1 88 Listening to Jesus 

precepts which our Lord Jesus Christ hath pro- 
posed to us in the Gospel are impracticable in 
our natural state of corruption. We may strive 
indeed to be somewhat resembling those pre- 
cepts; but if we will speak frankly and honestly, 
we shall confess that what we do is but forced, 
and springs from nothing less than from the 
natural, carnal heart, and from the corrupt will, 
which is much more affected \^ith and busied 
about the things of this world, that strike and 
please our senses, than with the things that are 
Divine. Yet God desires the whole hearty and a 
willing people. Thus, though we should prac- 
tise the most sublime virtues, if we have not 
Charity (i Cor. xiii.), which is no other thing 
than the Love of God^ if all our actions do not 
spring from this principle, we are nothings and 
all we do is nothing, according to St. Paul. But 
we cannot give this love to ourselves, it is shed 
abroad iii our hearts by the Lloly Ghost (Rom. 
v.). It is therefore this Principle of Life that 
we must endeavour to acquire, as being the 
life and soul of our soul. And if we have 
it, then all our actions will have the right 
value for making them agreeable to God, 
as springing from that Principle which renders 
them valuable and pleasing to Him, to wit, the 



A Letter 189 

Love of God, or Charity^ which is the same 
thing. 

6. It is to this Love of God, my dearest 
sister, that I desire with all my heart to bring 
you by His grace, it being the end of the 
journey to which He invites you. And if once 
we are so happy as to find the way which leads 
to it, we shall walk therein with abundance of 
contentment and joy, since nothing is difficult 
to him that loves. That which one does 
willingly, to which the will and inclination are 
strongly carried and attracted, one does it with 
wonderful joy, and without constraint : it must 
be a force upon us, when we are obliged to act 
otherwise. It is only this service of voluntary 
love that is worthy of God; any other is an 
abomination to Him. But a great many souls 
that desire to love and serve Him, give them- 
selves much trouble, labour hard and long, 
without advancing, for want of taking the right 
road to arrive thereat. In that road is the 
place where we meet Him Who is given us as 
a Guide, even our Lord Jesus Christ; and this 
place is our own heart. The Ki7igdom of God, 
where He dwellcth, is within 21s, says Jesus 
Christ (Luke xvii.). This is the place where 
we infiillibly meet this friend and guide: it is 



190 Listening to Jesus 

nowhere else, according to the testimony of 
Jesus Christ Himself and all the Saints. Among 
others, there comes into my mind a passage of 
St. Augustine, which is nearly to this purpose : 
/ sought Thee far off, but Thou ivast near ; 
7idthout 7?ie^ and Thou wast in me, 

7. Here, then, lies the secret for discovering 
the mystery of God, which, according to St. 
Paul, is Christ in us (Col. i. 27). The way or 
the means to find Him there is the prayer of 
the heart; for this certainly is a capital truth, 
Christ in us, and his manifestation in us, 
IS THE basis of CHRISTIANITY; sccing thcrcon 
depends our regeneration. It is known only 
to those who are so happy as to experience 
it, that this truth is as real as it is unknown 
to those who do not experience it, who know 
about God and Religion, and all Divine things, 
only by the way of reasoning and speculation. 
Hence it comes that we see so little real fruit 
among Christians, who nevertheless know very 
well how to speak and reason about religious 
matters, and have a great deal of knowledge. 
This comes from their not having learned to 
love, without which all the rest is but a vain 
science. 

8. You may say to me perhaps, my dearest 



A Letter 



191 



sister : But how does one learn to love God ? 
It is my greatest trouble that I am sensible I 
do not love Him enough." I answer that prayer 
is the properest means to learn to love ; but as, 
for the most part, nothing else is understood 
by the word prayer but vocal prayer^ or the 
words that we address to God, by our own 
meditation, or the set forms which we read : I 
think it necessary to explain this matter a little. 
Our Lord tells us, that ive ought to pray alivays 
(Luke xviii. i); and St. Paul orders to pray 
without ceasmg {1 Thess. v. 17), and in another 
place he says, that we know not what to pray 
for as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh in- 
tercessiofi for us imth groa?ii?igs which ca?i?iot be 
uttered (Rom. viii. 26). Our Lord says : Use not 
vai7t repetitions {or many words) ^ as the heathen 
do : for they think that they shall be heard for their 
?nuch speaking (Matt. vi. 7). These instructions, 
to pray without ceasi7ig, and 7iot to use many 
zvords i7i our prayers^ would contradict each 
other, if prayer consisted in nothing but pre- 
meditated discourses, or even extemporary ones, 
expressing what we beg of God to grant us. 
Such could not be performed continually, and 
if a man should overload himself with this 
kind of prayer, it would extremely fatigue the 



192 Listening to Jesus 

head, because the memory must be very active, 
in order to furnish us with a constant store of 
thoughts. Prayer or supplication^ then, must 
be some other thing, if it can or ought to 
be continual ; and that which we have just 
spoken of (which is very good, provided it 
be used with moderation) is but one kind of 
prayer, 

9. I take it, then, that prayer in itself is an 
inclination of the heart towards God, a sweet 
and unconstrained tendency towards Him, Who 
is the object we desire to love, and towards 
Whom our bias lies. It is an action of the heai't^ 
rather than of the tmderstandi7ig, and one which 
is altogether natural to man ; for it is natural 
to the heart to love, and to incline towards the 
object of its love. This is done without effort 
or constraint. We love incessantly ; and though 
we lay hold on different objects on which we 
bestow our love, sometimes on one, and some- 
times on another, and most commonly on our- 
selves, who are our principal end, and to which 
we would refer every other thing; and though 
we are soon weary, and conceive an aversion 
for the creature, to which for a time we sacri- 
ficed our affection, yet we leave it only to take 
up with some new object to which we devote 



A Letter 



193 



our love. And thus we always love, and ex- 
perience by our inconstancy, and by the little 
satisfaction we find in the objects we choose, 
that our hearts want to be filled with something 
more perfect and more excellent than all the 
creatures together, and that it is God alone in 
Whom this fulness and satisfaction are to be 
found, because He hath formed the heart in 
such a manner as not to be perfectly satisfied 
and filled with anything but Himself, being 
made by Him of such an immense greatness 
as bears some proportion to the Divinity, and 
can only be filled by it. Thus in order to pray 
aright, one needs only turn away his heart from 
all the creatures and himself, and bend it to- 
wards God. And this sweet exercise may be 
performed continually and without Ichlwur. 
There is none necessary in order to remain 
quiet in the presence of a friend in whom we 
perfectly confide. Now and then we speak to 
him, then we are silent. Afterwards we look at 
him, and with gladness and satisfaction enjoy 
his presence. We possess him, and it is satis- 
faction enough to us to know that he is present. 

10. Let us thus behave towards God, my 
dearest sister. Though our senses do neither see 
nor comprehend Him, we know that He is 

o 



194 Listening to Jesus 



always present, filling all things. He is in every 
place, but after a particular manner He is in the 
hearts of those to whom He has already given 
the grace to desire to love Him sincerely and 
only. This grace, even if it be but still very 
weak and imperfect, is from Him, and is His 
operation, and none of ours, who a7'e not able of 
ourselves to have one good thought. How ought 
this to inspire us with fresh ardour to seek after 
that sacred Presence which hath already wrought 
this desire in us to love Him, and to abstain 
from that which is contrary to what this love 
requires of us ! Let us then labour after this 
Presence, and be persuaded that God is more 
present and nearer to us than we are to our- 
selves. Let us accustom ourselves to do all 
our actions before His eyes, and for the love 
of Him. Let us offer up to Him with an 
inward glance of our soul all that we do, think, 
and speak. Thus shall v\'e accustom ourselves 
by degrees to walk in His presence^ as He 
ordered Abraha?n (Gen. xvii. i). Moreover, 
let us use the means which by experience we 
find to be most efficacious for recalling the 
remembrance of God, and awakening His love 
in our hearts. Let us avoid everything that 
makes us forget God ; and as soon as we 



A Letter 



195 



perceive this forgetfulness, let us return to Him 
inwardly and calmly, without troubling or 
disquieting ourselves. When we commit faults, 
let us have recourse immediately to Him. Let 
neither fear nor shame hinder us from presenting 
ourselves before Him, how filthy and impure 
soever we feel ourselves to be. Let us use 
such reading as may draw us to Him. The 
Holy Scripture is the Book of books. There 
are still others that may be a great help. We 
are sensible enough of those that inflame the 
heart and nourish it. which is always preferable 
to what strikes the understanding, and fills it 
with images and ideas which often consume the 
heart instead of feeding it, and fill the mind 
with speculation. By this procedure we form 
a commerce in our inward man with God, 
which by degrees becomes continual, by 
frequently addressing to Him with the mouth 
or in spirit some little word, and laying open 
before Him with confidence our present dis- 
position and state, as to a most faithful friend 
either by a single sigh, or merely looking up to 
Him. 

II. David practised this admirably well; 
and from this continual commerce with his 
God flowed those descriptions of his inward 



196 Listening to Jesus 

dispositions, sentiments, and states which he 
hath left us in his beautiful psahns. They looked 
unto Him and were lightened (Ps. xxxiv. 5). 
In very truth, if we apply ourselves to this holy 
exercise of walking and living in His presence, 
of speaking to Him rather with the heart than 
the mouth (though vocal prayer is very com- 
mendable too at certain times, when we find it 
suits our present state) ; if we do this, we shall 
soon find by experience a great change in our- 
selves ; that the love of God shall take possession 
of our hearts, and disengage us more and more 
from ourselves and the world. The whole 
secret consists in turning away, the most we 
can, our hearts, our eyes, and our thoughts from 
everything that is not God ; not busying our- 
selves voluntarily with the things of the world, 
but employing ourselves quietly and calmly with 
God present, and Whom we believe to be so 
without pretending to form distinct ideas of 
Him. Thus are we made capable and disposed 
to receive a thousand graces and favours from 
Him. David says : / will hear what God the 
Lord will speak : for LLe will speak peace unto 
His people^ etc. (Ps. Ixxxv. 8). He was therefore 
attentive to God. This attention does not 
consist in expecting to hear some extraordinary 



A Letter 



197 



voice with our bodily ears ; this is not at all the 
matter ; and if any should desire it, he might be 
deceived and fall into fanaticism. 

12. God does not speak after that manner; 
His language is to the heart ; He inclines the 
heart, He operates what His Word speaks, which 
is none other than Jesus Christ in us. The 
change of inclinations, desires, and affections 
which we experience by degrees, from earthly 
and carnal, to become more and more celestial 
and Divine, this change is the language of the 
Word in us : He spake ^ and it zvas done (Ps. 
xxxiii.). He creates and operates what He 
speaks, all at the same time ; we do not hear 
His voice with our ears, but we experience the 
effects of it. He demands the attention of the 
heart, and that our senses be disentangled from 
their occupation with worldly things, that they be 
calmed and disengaged from an infinite number 
of objects which employ them ; that our imagin- 
ation turn away from a thousand phantoms 
which keep it at work; and that we only employ 
ourselves willingly with God alone. He loves 
silence, retirement, and a composed sphit : in this 
disposition He makes Himself manifest to and 
felt by the heart, after a manner ineffable and in- 
comprehensible to human reason, and surpassing 



198 Listening to Jesns 

all the capacity of the senses. There He teaches 
us inwardly, in so real and so efficacious a 
manner, that when we experience it we then 
perceive that all the voices that strike our senses 
outwardly, however good, have not the efficacy, 
the force, and the reality of what we experience 
within us. Therefore it is that our Saviour 
saith (Matt, xxiii.) : One is your Teacher. It is 
because His voice alone is able to bestow and 
operate in us what He teaches us. 

13. I beg of Him with all my heart, my dear 
sister, to lead you in the way which I have 
briefly described to you ; I mean, that He would 
teach you to seek Him vvithin yourself, where 
He is willing to establish His reign ; and you 
shall experience more grace and happiness than 
can either be conceived or described. This he 
assures you, who hath the experience of it more 
and more, who is devoted to your service, and 
yours without reserve. 

14. I do assure you, my dearest sister, that it 
is only by thus giving place to the life of the 
Eternal Word to insinuate itself into your heart, 
as the seed of the new man, and by opening 
that heart to receive it, that we acquire the true 
Divine virtues by inclination. For it is these 
virtues that are the inclinations of the new man. 



A Letter 



According as the soul begins to kindle into new 
life, and grows up in us, so those virtues do grow, 
and the practice of them becomes our natural 
bent and inclination. We are carried to\vards 
them without effort and without thinking; just 
as in the state of corrupt nature it hurries us 
without any struggle into the practice of vice. 
Inclination, I say, carries us thereto. We may 
indeed with labour and reasoning put a stop to 
its course, and check its corrupt inclinations, by 
reflection and fear of offending God ; and it is 
very well done thus to stifle all these evil inclin- 
ations. But to pull them up by the root, and 
plant in their place those of the Divine virtues 
which Christianity teaches, 'tis only the life of 
the Word, by insinuating itself into our hearts, 
that hath the power to do it. And this is the 
mystery of Christ in us, of which St. Paul speaks 
(Coloss. i. 27), and of Regeneratio7i, without 
which our Lord Jesus Christ assures us that we 
cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (John 
iii. s). 

15. It may be objected, if so it be that the 
voice of God, or what they would have us 
believe to be such, is not a voice which one 
hears with his bodily cars, why do they so 
earnestly recommend to us silence, retirement, 



200 Listening to JesiLS 

recollection, and to avoid the distractions of the 
mind ? Since they tell us that the voice of 
God doth not operate on the senses, nor make 
any impression on the ears, what matters it 
what the senses be employed about ? I answer, 
that though the voice of God, or His language 
to the soul, doth not with its sound strike upon 
the senses, yet so it is, that it demands recol- 
lection and avoiding distractions, if it is to 
operate with efficacy in our hearts, as hath been 
observed ; because the distractions and dissipa- 
tion of the senses among various objects are 
the very things that drag along the will and 
the love, and create an attachment to those 
objects which the senses present to us. The 
will inclines to them, and there lies the mis- 
chief ; they are the windows of the soul, and 
the gates by which the creatures enter into it. 
Thus we must morlify them, and cut off those 
objects from them, if we would have our hearts 
to be filled with God, and that His Word should 
work the work of regeneration in us. And 
therefore, as soon as the soul conceives a 
delight of being converted to God, and of 
loving Him with all its powers, from that time 
forth it feels within itself an inclination and bias 
to retirement, to keep at a distance and absent 



A Letter 



20I 



itself from the things of the world, in order to 
turn itself freely and without impediment towards 
its God, and to follow the good impulses He 
inspires, and what the conscience dictates to be 
the things that draw it to Him, and disengage 
it from the world. These are the effects of 
what He operates or speaks in the bottom of 
the heart. This is His language, which is con- 
formable to His spiritual nature, and makes 
itself to be understood by our spirit, which is 
also of the same nature ; for God is Spirit^ and 
the true worshippers worship Him in spirit^ 
and in truth. The more we advance in the 
ways of God and follow the good impulses 
which He inspires us with, the more is this 
matter unfolded, and our spirit, called by St. 
Peter (i Pet. iii. 4) the hidden man of the 
hearty made manifest, which is, as it were, 
buried in the senses, as long as they have the 
dominion over us, and that we know no other 
life. 'Tis our own experience alone that unfolds 
to us by degrees what that life of the spirit is, 
of which St. Paul speaks when he says: They 
that are after tJie flesh do mi/id the things of 
the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit the 
things of the Spirit. But ye are not in the flesh, 
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 



202 Listening to Jesus 

divell in yoii. Now if any man have not the 
Spirit of CJirist^ lie is none of His (Rom. viii. 5, 9). 
It hath been the practice of all the saints in all 
ages to mortify their senses. 

May 14, 1735. 



THE LAW OF LOVE 



THE LAW OF LOVE 



SUGGESTIONS FOR AN EXERCISE OF PRAYER FOR ALL 
THE DAYS OF THE WEEK 

SUNDAY 

Jesus Christ is the Sun of the soul — He desires to dwell 
in man — 'Tis a great honour to abandon oneself to 
Him — He that gives up himself to Him to be His 
slave becomes free in reality and truth. 

O Sun of righteousness^ that ln'i7igeth healing in 
Thy wings ^ enlighte?i me with Thy Divine rays 
(Mai. iv. 2). I expose myself in Thy presence, to 
be enlightened and warmed by Thee, Thou Sun 
of my soul. 'Tis Thou alone. Lord Jesus, that 
art this Sun, and Who alone must dissipate the 
darkness of my understanding, and soften the 
hardness of my heart. 'Tis that heart wherein 
Thou desirest to dwell, that I present before 
Thee to prepare it, that it may become a proper 
dwelling-place to lodge such a Guest. The 



206 



The Law of Love 



sense of my impurity, and wicked dispositions 
of this heart, would not permit me to dare to 
pretend to so great a favour, if Thou Thyself 
hadst not told us in Thy Word that it is Thy 
desire to dwell in the midst of us. Thou sayest 
that Thou and the Father shall come unto him 
that Hstens to Thy word, and keeps it, and Thou 
shalt come and make Thy abode in Him. This 
is the highest state one can aspire after, to 
become the dweUing-place of the Most High, of 
the King of kings, and Lord of lords. O my 
God, these are not ways of speakings; Thy 
words and promises are reality and truth ; they 
signify more than human expression and language 
is able to comprehend, which, however, Thou 
hast been obliged to use, in order to make 
Thyself intelligible to men : for Thy promises 
equal Thy greatness and Thy immensity ; and 
the terms we make use of are, like our compre- 
hension, much stinted and Hmited. 

2. In fine. Lord, Thou desirest to give us 
nothing less than Thyself. Inwtensity itself, 
the All desires to unite and give itself to a 
not/mig as I am. What is it I can do ? I lose 
myself in this abyss of mercy and love; and in 
the sense of my weakness and incapacity to 
render Thee anything in exchange, I beseech 



Sunday 207 

Thee earnestly to make me hereafter Thy slave, 
to seize me entirely as Thy own property. I 
totally renounce myself, all pretension and right 
which I might challenge to myself. IMy sole 
desire is to be Thine without reserve. Thou 
hast given me a free will ; grant that I may use 
it for no other end than to return it to Thee, as 
the only present worthy of Thee ; that I may 
use it only to become free and voluntarily Thy 
slave, whom Thou hast purchased : For ye are 
7iot your owii^ for ye a7^e bought with a price^ 
saith St. Paul (i Cor. vi. 19). Truly I am Thy 
servant, and the son of Thy hajidmaid : Thou hast 
loosed 7ny bonds (Ps. cxvi. 16). 

3. Instead of a slave of the devil and of my 
passions, which tyrannize over me, Thou desirest 
to make me Thy slave, and thus make me to be- 
come truly free, and place me in the liberty of the 
children of God, 'Tis those fatal chains that 
Thou desirest to break; this is the fruit of our 
redemption. Thou art wilHng to make mc ex- 
perience the effect of this redemption, in dis- 
engaging me from the cruel servitude to which 
I still find myself subjected. I am very sensible 
that I am still fettered and tied down by the 
bonds of my natural corruption, that my soul 
cannot fly towards Thee, my God, when never- 



208 



TJie Law of Love 



theless I feel it strongly drawn by Thee. Break 
these bonds, O my Redeemer and Saviour; 
make me to experience in this mortal life the 
mildness of Thy yoke, and the felicity a soul 
enjoys that feels in reality that Thou hast 
broken its bonds, by effecting towards it what 
happens to a prisoner shut up in a dark 
dungeon, and loaded with chains, whom a 
deliverer sets at liberty, and who finds himself 
thus free, and in full possession of the cheerful 
hght of the day. A thousand times more real 
is the experience of a soul to whom Thou 
appliest what Thou hast done for it in the 
course of its redemption. What a change does 
this prisoner find ! He knows and has felt his 
state of misery, his darkness, and the weight of 
his chains in his dungeon, and he knows well 
that at present he is free and at large, and fully 
enjoys the light of the sun. It had been in 
vain to have told him, while he was yet in his 
dark dungeon, that he was free, and enjoyed 
the amiable light of the day, if he did not really 
find that his deliverer opens the gates of his 
prison, breaks his chains, and sets him at 
liberty. Grant me, O my God and my Saviour, 
tliat I may experience the same grace. For 
what would it profit me to believe all that Thou 



Sunday 



209 



hast done for me, if I have not a proof of it 
within me? if I do not find by experietice 
that from a slave of the devil, which I am by 
nature, a prisoner, and incapable of flying 
towards Thee, of enjoying Thy light and Thy 
agreeable presence, O my Sun, I am set at 
liberty, and enjoy that incomparable advantage, 
that felicity which surpasses all comprehension ? 
Behold my heart, O my Saviour, and cleanse it, 
that I may be made a partaker of the blessed- 
ness of those to whom Thou sayest: Blessed 
are the pure in heart : for they shall see God 
(:^Iatt. V. 8). 



P 



MONDAY 

The best remedy against diversity of thoughts, and a 
crowd of reflections, is the Love of God, and an entire 
resignation to Him and to His Providence — Then 
may one be quiet and undisturbed. 

I. Wnv ahodest thou among the sheepfolds^ to 

hear the bleatings of the flocks 1 (Judges v. i6). 

/ hate vain thoughts^ but Thy Law do I love 

(Ps. cxix. 113). O Lord, Thou knowest how 

prejudicial it is to my soul to hsten to divers 

thoughts; to that crowd of reflections, that 

multitude of thoughts which fill my imagination, 

and like the bleating and lowing of the flocks 

stun and distract me, not only from the attention 

my heart desires to have for Thee, O my God ; 

but which likewise cause a thousand scruples to 

arise in my mind. A thousand fears and doubts, 

and a thousand anxieties do incessantly trouble 

the peace of my soul, and create in me a thou 
210 



Monday 2 1 1 



sand vexations. Who shall deliver me from this 
grievous evil? 'Tis to Thee I have recourse, 
O my God ; Thou alone canst calm this raging 
and tempestuous sea of my imagination, which 
seems to have no other business at present but 
to torment me, and disturb the repose of my 
heart. Teach me, O my merciful Saviour, to 
despise this stir and noise, and to make no 
more account of it, than of the bleatings of the 
flocks. Let my soul learn to keep itself quiet 
and composed in Thy presence, to resign itself 
into Thy paternal hands, and to look upon all 
these various thoughts as things foreign to me, 
and wherein I ought to take no share. For Thou 
informest me that they do me no hurt, but in 
so far as I stand trifling with them, and look 
upon them as things that concern me. They 
disturb me when I desire to attack them by 
other thoughts and reflections, which I will 
needs oppose to .them. / hate vam thoughts^ 
says the good King, but Thy Law do I love. 
What law is that, O holy Prophet? 'Tis the 
law of Love, the effect of which is, that abandon- 
ing myself entirely, or renouncing myself, I 
am employed in considering and loving my 
great object, which is my God. This loving 
occupation of my heart makes me give no atten- 



212 



The Laiv of Love 



tion to the tumult of my imagination, which seeks 
only to trouble and distract me with a thousand 
various thoughts, that have no other aim but 
to plunge me into care and solicitude about 
myself. I say to it : ^'Foolish imagination, dost 
thou not know that I am no longer my own, 
but His Who hath redeemed me, and to Whom 
I have resigned, and do still resign myself anew ? 
Being His, then, it is His part to take care of 
what belongs to Him. I should do Him an 
injury, and encroach anew upon His rights if, 
after having resigned m^yself to Him, I should 
again intermeddle, be afraid for myself, and 
become my own guide. I therefore throw my- 
self into His arms in full confidence ; I desire 
to love and to adore Him ; this is my duty and 
my employment. Doth not the holy apostle 
say : Be carefitl about nothings but pray without 
ceasing 2 And our merciful Saviour, to Whom 
we belong, doth He not say the same ? I there- 
fore declare unto thee, thou silly imagination, 
which makest it all thy business to teaze and 
torment me by thy vain and continual sugges- 
tions, that I break up all commerce with thee, 
and look upon thee as a stranger. It is self- 
love whom thou servest, and whose interest 
thou supportest, and it is my enemy. It is to 



Monday 213 

Charity^ or the Pure Love of God, that I have 
consecrated myself, even to that pure and holy 
Love that bids me regard myself no more : it is 
God that hereafter will take care of all that 
concerns me." 

2. It is also to Him alone that I desire to 
adhere ; for casting and reposing myself in His 
arms, as a child in its tender mother's in full 
confidence, there I find the peace of my heart. 
The more I can forget all things and myself, 
and be taken up with nothing but my God, and 
cleaving to nothing any longer but Him, with 
my heart, which inclines towards Him, and 
reposes itself, so to speak, in Him, without 
having either distinct thoughts or idea of Him ; 
the more do I feel my soul nourished and filled 
with a hidden manna. I feel too a calm and 
rest in my heart. Since everybody, then, seeks 
after peace, I will pursue that path which God 
opens to me, in order to arrive at it — namely, 
resignation to my God, Whose gift it is, living 
by faith and confidence in Him, without any 
other stay. His fidelity. His love, and His 
goodness are sufficient to give me contentment. 
I give no more ear to other voices but that of 
my good Shepherd. Let all cares, then, and 
solicitude be banished far from me. I make no 



214 



The Law of Love 



account of them any longer ; I stand trifling 
with them no more : the words of my Saviour 
are engraved in my heart (Luke xii. 22, 23) : 
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought 
for your Hfe, what ye shall eat ; neither for the 
body, what ye shall put on. The life is more 
than meat, and the body is more than raiment," 



TUESDAY 



Self-abnegation for the love of Jesus—Supplication that 
He may draw me to run after Him — To do one's 
daily affairs in a continual attention to the Presence 
of God — How to behave amidst dryness and trials — 
To avoid confusion, distractions, and temptations. 

I. On Tuesday I present myself to the eyes of 
my Divine Saviour, Jesus Christ, and humbly 
beseech Him that as He renounced all the 
pleasures of the flesh for the love of me, He may 
give me the grace willingly to deprive myself for 
the love of Him of all carnal satisfactions ; and 
to grant that hereafter it may be the power of 
His Divine T-.ove that attracts me. ^'Yes, my 
Divine Jesus, the sweetness of Thy Love which 
Thou makest my soul to feel amidst the internal 
peace and repose which I taste near Thee, while 
I am in a composed spirit in perfect silence at 
Thy feet, is the power by which Thou d rawest me 
215 



2l6 



TJie Laiv of Love 



unto TheCj so that I run after Thee attracted by 
this Divine Love which so enthralls me that it 
gives me an aversion for all the pleasure I formerly 
sought with so much eagerness in the world. 
Thy attraction gives me a disgust thereof, and I 
desire hereafter to run with all my might after 
Thee only. But, Thou knovvest my weakness, 
and that being incapable to have this good 
desire of myself, which animateth me to run 
after Thee, I am still more unable to put it in 
execution. Since Thou then givest me this 
desire, which is already the operation of Thy 
Spirit in me, and doth not proceed from myself, 
I present it unto Thee, and do Thee homage in 
not appropriating it to myself ; and beseeching 
Thee to accomplish this Thy desire in me, I say 
unto thee : Draw ??te, and I shall run after Thee 
(Cant. i. 4). This being spoken with calmness, 
I keep myself with silence at my Saviour's feet, 
and present my heart to Him that He Himself 
may open it, I present to Him all the desires 
and affections of this heart, that He may become 
the master and possessor of them, and that He 
may not allow me any longer to use them 
according to my own will, but that they may 
depend on His. After having been some 
quarter of an hour in this respectful silence, I 



Tuesday 2 1 7 



say to Him with tenderness and affection : 
My God^ my Ki?ig, Thy kingdo7n come ; he 
Thou that cofiqtiering and victorious Kiiig^ that 
may make the co?iquest of my heart, which is Thy 
kingdo??L It hath too long resisted aiid rel^elled 
agaifist Thee, Do ?iot suffer this any more. 
Employ Thy pozuer to gain it entirely ; for 
Thou Thyself hath told us that the kingdom 
of God which is Thy kingdo77i is within us. 
Let the subjects of this kijigdom,, all my se?tses, 
all niy passions,^ beco?ne Thy slaves. After 
I have made these aspirations, I resign myself 
into His hands, and I adore Him. I read 
some chapters in the Holy Scriptm'es that 
refer to this matter, such as the parable in 
the Gospel of a king that went to make a 
conquest of a kingdom. I take care especially 
not to read out of custom, but in order to 
nourish my soul; not so much to hunt after 
explanations of what I read, in my memory and 
my understanding, as to endeavour to nourish 
my heart. It is for this reason that I read 
little, continually attending to the disposition in 
which my heart is, while I read. If I find that 
it is touched with the passage I am reading, 
and drawn towards God, to adore Him, or to 
look up to Him with love and filial confidence, 



2l8 



The Law of Love 



I cease reading, to give place to this touch to 
penetrate rne. If it draws me to utter some 
ex]^>ressions that move my affections towards 
God, I do it. And though I should read but 
one verse, I am satisfied; it being my aim not 
to fatigue my imagination with a great many 
ideas, images, and thoughts, which I would fain 
form to myself, and which drain the heart rather 
than afford it any nourishment ; but my design 
being to have it penetrated with the unction of 
grace, which is the love of my Saviour, an oil 
and perfume poured forth, which penetrates, 
nourishes, and softens by degrees the whole 
heart. When this exercise is over, I endeavour 
throughout the day calmly to draw some nourish- 
ment from what I have read and meditated on, 
seeking above all to preserve the presence of 
God in all I do, and to avoid as much as I can 
whatever distracts me from that Presence. I 
therefore take care to execute calmly with a 
sedate mind, and without precipitation, what- 
ever presents itself to be done through the day. 
Directing my attention towards God, and having 
Him always for my object, I do what I have to 
do, how little and trifling soever it may be, for 
the love of Him; and I also experience His 
assistance therein, and that He is pleased there- 



Tuesday 219 



with. This being my constant aim, all the 
actions that belong to my condition, and to 
which I am in duty bound, are converted or 
changed into prayers, which are continually 
intermixed by secret signs, and so to speak, by 
love-glances which I cast privately on my 
beloved Jesus amidst the affairs or things that 
do most employ the eyes of my soul. 

4. Thus it is I endeavour to maintain a con- 
tinual and respectful intercourse, but likewise 
familiar and full of confidence, day and night, 
with my kind Saviour, Who renders it by His 
grace, which He makes me to taste in my heart, 
still more delightful, more continual, and more 
intimate, and me more happy and contented, and 
devoid of all desire and all fear ; makes me to 
pass my hfe with Him, without either care or 
solicitude but that of never being at a distance 
from Him. 

5. If dryness takes possession of my heart, 
and distractions come crowding upon me, like 
troublesome birds to disturb my sacrifice, I 
endeavour to recall my wandering imagination 
towards God by some act of conversion to Him, 
either by using some vocal prayer, or some word 
that moves the affection ; such as : My God, I 
desire to think of Thee only ; or, Grant me the 



220 



The Law of Love 



grace, O 7ny God, to despise all vain thoughts, 
that like 7'aging waives arise in 7ny i7naginatio7i ; 
do 7iot pe7'77iit the7?i to disturb the depth of 7iiy 
heart ; let it 7'e77iai7i cahn and quiet toivards Thee, 
77iy God. All that passes in my imagination I 
look upon as foreign. I suffer it as a just chas- 
tisement for the time I formerly spent voluntarily 
amidst a thousand vain and idle distractions, to 
say nothing of wicked ones, instead of consecrat- 
ing that precious time unto Thee. ^' Pardon 
this, O my God, and grant me the grace to suffer 
at present what I cannot hinder, with humility 
and resignation, acknowledging Thy justice in 
making those things which heretofore ministered 
to my pleasures, become at present in Thy 
hands, and very justly, the means of my suffering 
and pains.'' 

6. Thus by such aspirations as these towards 
God, or by a little reading, I endeavour to recall 
myself to Him. If all this proves dry and insipid, 
so that I find nothing but disgust and weariness, 
I endeavour to support that painful state with 
patience and resignation, acknowledging that all 
fervour and delightful sense of the love of God, 
all internal consolations, do proceed only from 
the pure favour of God, Who bestows them when 
and liow He pleases. I am sensible that with 



Tiiesday 221 



all my eftbrts I am not capable of driving out 
one single wicked thought that torments me. 
Thus, after having made some effort, without 
troubhng myself about the matter, I endeavour 
to turn away my will from it. And so I find that 
involuntary distractions do me no hurt, but serve 
to humble and convince me that of myself / 
cannot have one good thought {2 Cor. iii. 5), but 
that it is purely and only the grace of God, and 
the operation of His good Spirit, that gives me 
those I have. This gives me a conviction of my 
unprofitableness and inability for every good 
thing. Thus this state of dryness, painful to bear, 
is of infinite advantage to me, since it lays the 
groundwork of humility in me, of patience, per- 
severance, and faith, which makes me believe in 
the presence of God, though I have no conviction 
of it from internal feeling : Blessed are they that 
have not seen and yet have believed ( John xx. 29). 

7. I find by experience that when I suffer 
these states with tranquillity and resignation, 
observing therein patience, perseverance, and 
hope in Him, He permits them for no other 
end but to make me afterwards experience His 
Divine Presence with greater delight and in- 
crease of grace than before, and that His love 
may sink down, be fortified, and take deeper 



222 



The Law of Love 



root in the ground of my heart during this 
spiritual winter, this dry, barren, and painful 
season, in order to shoot forth with more vigour 
outwardly, as soon as this period is over, as 
trees take root in winter. Thus is that passage 
verified and fulfilled, which exhorts us to suffer 
the absence and suspension of consolations, to 
the end that our internal life may grow up and 
be renewed. 

8. Above all, I avoid being troubled or dis- 
quieted, remembering that passage of St. Peter 
(i Peter iii. 4), that a meek a?id quiet spirit is 
in the sight of God of great price. In order to 
guard against this evil, I never fight directly 
against my distractions or other temptations 
that assault me inwardly, by opposing other 
thoughts to them, and trifling with them by dint 
of argument. For I have often experienced that 
this animates and multiplies them, as when we 
are surrounded with bees, and in danger of 
being stung, if we will needs drive them away 
with our hand, we provoke them, and they pur- 
sue and sting us with greater keenness than if we 
had not stirred. Thus I endeavour gently and 
calmly to turn away my will from those disquiet- 
ing thoughts or sensations, and to look up to 
God, suffering them patiently. And thus the 



Tuesday 223 

temptations lose their force, and those various 
and officious thoughts do us no harm, but sud- 
denly dissipate and vanish, without any great 
effort on our part to drive them away. All our 
struggle is like that of a person who turns away 
his sight from one object to look at another, or 
if he cannot divert his eyes from it, employs 
himself about something else, without trifling 
away the time in fretting himself that he cannot 
divert his sight from a vexatious object. He 
sees without seeing : is occupied with what he 
loves, regarding it with the eyes of his heart, 
while those of his body pays no heed to the 
representation of an object in which it takes no 
interest. 



WEDNESDAY 

The Word of God speaketh in man — We ought to hear 
it — It speaketh with efficacy when we do not resist 
it— We ought to submit to the will of God — Looking 
to God heals the stings of the serpent — To speak 
little. 

I. This is my beloved Son^ m Whom I am zvell 

pleased, hear ye Him (Matt. iii. 17). I adore 

Thee, O my Saviour ; Thou art the eternal 

Word of God and His love ; His good pleasure 

is to communicate Thee as His Word unto men 

for their salvation. It is by His Word, which 

is His well-beloved Son, that He hath manifested 

Himself, and always doth manifest Himself to 

us. Speak then^ Lord, Thy servant heareth. O 

my God, since it is Thy good pleasure and all 

Thy delight to speak and to manifest Thyself 

unto men by Tliy Word ; grant. Lord, that I 

may have no other desire, but that all my 
224 



Wednesday 



225 



delight may only be to hear that Divine Word. 
Open the ears of my heart that I may hear it, and 
shut them against every other voice. My God, 
how great is Thy love ! It strikes me with 
admiration, and invites me respectfully to hold 
my peace, to continue speechless and silent in 
Thy sacred presence, since Thou art about to 
speak. Respect engages our silence when we 
are in the presence of a great king. Respect, full 
of love and confidence, engages me to silence 
before Thee, O King of kings. For I am in- 
capable of honouring Thee by all I can com- 
prehend, and by all T am able to express. I am 
too ignorant to know how to pray as I ought. 
Speak then and pray, O Idoly Spirit, in my heart, 
itnth sighs that can 710 1 be uttered (Rom. viii. 26). 
Take entire possession of this heart. 

2. But it would be to very little purpose for 
me to hear and to learn Thy will concerning 
me. since I should remain utterly unable to 
accomplish it, if I did not know that Thy Word 
operates and creates in me what it speaks. This 
is what comforts me and raises my courage, 
which droops at the sight of the inability I feel 
in me to do Thy will. Teach it me, then, O my 
Saviour, and operate it at the same time. Thou 
demandest nothing on my part but my consent, 

Q 



226 The Lazu of Love 

and that I do not resist Thee. Do Thou 
Thyself take away all resistance, and everything 
in me that hinders Thy Word from having 
its effect. Mere nothing did not resist Thee : 
Thou spakest and the thing was done (Ps. xxxiii. 9), 
when Thou createdst the world. But as for me, 
I am by sin become a wretched nothing that 
resists Thee. How much labour hast Thou 
undergone, and what pains do not my iniquities 
and rebellions cost Thee (Isa. xliii. 24), till such 
time as Thou hast surmounted and wholly cap- 
tivated my will, in order to create me anew ! 
Create a dean hearty and reneiv a right spirit 
within me (Ps. li. 12). 

3. Thy IV ill be done on earth as in heaven 
(Matt. vi. 10). Accomplish Thy holy will con- 
cerning me. This is the request Thou hast 
ordered me to make ; to it I desire to confine 
all my wishes. Grant me, my God, as perfect 
a submission to every perplexing event that hap- 
pens to me, contrary to my will, by what means 
soever it may come to pass, as if it was Thou 
Thyself that didst dispense it. Let me not 
regard the means which Thou mayest employ 
to mortify me, in no matter what way. Grant 
I may quickly pass through these trials, and 
receive them with as much resignation as if 



Wednesday 22 y 

they were dispensed to me immediately from 
Thy hand. 

4. If my corrupt nature begin to be fretful, 
and discontented, and exasperated against men, 
and other creatures whom Thou employest to 
humble me ; make it submit to bear Thy yoke, 
and stifle its impulses. I will look up unto 
Thee by faith, O my Saviour, when I feel the 
venomous stings of that serpent, which is none 
other than my old Adam; and Thy presence 
makes me whole. This glance softens my 
pains, stifles the poison, and heals the wounds 
which my soul receives when I consent un- 
awares to listen to evil, hurried on by the habit 
of my corrupt passions, which I have suffered 
to domineer too much. Regarding Thee is 
deliverance its elf > Amen. 

5, // is a good thing to give thanks luito the 
Lordy and to sing praise unto Thy Name^ O 
Most High (Ps. xcii.). Set a watch before my 
mouthy and keep the door of my lips^ O Lord 
(Ps. cxli. 3). I read the third chapter of St. 
James, and I carefully endeavour to speak little, 
there being nothing that so much distracts and 
exhausts one as much speaking. Finally, I take 
care to behave myself during the day, according 
to the directions given for Tuesday, 



THURSDAY 

The design of God is to win us to Himself — He makes a 
feint that He may draw us more forcibly — Jesus Christ 
hath suffered to give us an example — To preserve the 
presence of God — The fewer external objects, the more 
are the eyes of the soul enlightened. 

I. Turn azvay Thine eyes from me: for they 

have overcome me (Cant. vi. 5). O my Saviour, 

Thou often seemest to thrust us back, when we 

turn our eyes towards Thee, while at the same 

time Thou drawest our hearts after Thee, so 

that the eyes of our souls turn unto Thee : As 

the eyes of a servant look unto the hand of his 

master^ a?td the eyes of a maid unto the hand of 

her mistress ; so do our eyes wait upon Thee, 

until Thou have mercy up07i us (Ps. cxxiii). 

Permit me to say, O my Saviour, that this is 

a play of love ; Thou often feignest to thrust us 

back, as if Thou saidst to our souls. Turn azuay 

your eyes, while it is Thou Thyself that drawest 
228 



Thursday 229 



them. .And this artifice hath no other meaning 
than to redouble our desire of approaching Thee, 
to make us fix our looks with greater attention 
upon Thee our well-beloved. All Thy design 
is to make Thyself absolute master of our 
hearts \ and Thou incitest us by delaying Thy 
consolations, and feigning to hide Thy face, to 
seek it with greater ardour. Grant that the love 
which Thou pourest into our hearts may inflame 
them, to the end that we ourselves may invite 
and conjure Thee with so much the greater 
importunity to seize this heart and to make 
Thyself entire possessor of it, and of all our free 
will. O Love Divine ! what admirable means 
dost Thou employ to win us, and to tear us from 
our self-will ! Thou hast justly styled Thyself the 
Lover of souls ^ since there is no pains, no cares, 
no application which Thou dost not employ to 
gain and obtain them. What pains and suffer- 
ings hast Thou not assumed to Thyself in Thy 
mortal life ! Yea, this love and this desire hath 
carried Thee to that excess of love, as to die 
amidst the bitterest torments, and loaded with 
ignominy upon the cross. 

2. O my Lord and my God, grant me the 
same love for Thee. Be Thou the only object 
of my care, and of my love. And though 



230 Tlie Laiv of Love 

Thy providence should not furnish me the 
occasion of suffering a death hke that which 
Thou hast suffered for me, grant at least that I 
may bear with resignation and cheerfulness all 
the sufferings that shall befal me. either by 
diseases or other accidents, everything that 
mortifies my will and passions : that I may 
receive them as coming from Thee, and suffer 
for love of Thee all that shocks my natural 
pride, that esteem and approbadon I am so 
fond of preserving and augmenting in the 
opinion of men ; that I may humble myself in 
accepting willingly everything that produces a 
contrary effect: and that I may thus have the 
grace to imitate and follow Thee, though at a 
distance, in Thy life of contempt and sufferings 
having my eyes always fixed on Thee as my 
pattern and model. 

3. In the day-time_, busy at work, when I 
find myself much distracted by a thousand 
different thoughts. I turn my eyes towards God, 
as present in me, as soon as I perceive my dis- 
tractions. Or if this is not enough, I read some 
passage of the Holy Scripture, about which I 
employ my memory, if I can do it without 
struggle or inquietude, only in order to nourish 
my heart, and to_recall and preserve the pre- 



Thursday 



231 



sence of God, which is always the drift and end 
of all my exercises, and for the enjoyment of 
which, when I feel it, I quit them all, tying 
myself scrupulously to none, since they are but 
means which serve, as far as they are profitable, 
to lead and conduct us to God, ^Vho is our 
end. Thus we ought to cease from reading and 
meditation when we taste His Presence, and 
remain peaceably in that holy Presence, suffer- 
ing ourselves to be penetrated and warmed 
thereby. Just as a person that is cold needs 
only expose himself to the rays of the sun, and 
be still and motionless, in order to be warmed. 
Thus ought we, without scruple, to quit our 
reading that most charms us, and drop even our 
vocal prayers, when we feel ourselves touched 
by sweet internal attraction, which gives us a 
profound thought of God, and an incHnation to 
forbear for that time every other occupation. 
This we ought to do, and to prefer thinking on 
Him alone, or being occupied with Him only, 
as if we beheld Him with the eyes of our soul, 
to every other thing. And we shall thereafter 
find by experience what admirable effect this 
procedure will bring us for our spiritual ad- 
vancement : how the love of God takes pos- 
session of our hearts, surmounting and driving 



232 



Tlie Lazv of Love 



thence, by degrees, our earthly affections, and 
breaking the attachment we have to the creatures 
and ourselves. 

4. Tum away mine eyes from beJioIding va?iity 
a7id deceitful tJmigs (Ps. cxix. 37), and fix them 
upon Thee, my sacred and Divine Friend and 
Saviour. My God, Thou makest me experience 
that the fewer objects strike my sight, the more 
Thou enhghtenest the eyes of my soul, and 
discoverest to it Thy wonders ; insomuch that 
the material day becomes to me a dark night, 
and the objects it presents me withal grow 
tedious and tiresome, because Thy presence 
manifests itself to my soul, and displays therein 
a ray of Thy ]\Iajesty and Glory. 



FRIDAY 



To place our delight in God. disgusted at the pleasuie 
of the earth — Attachment to the relishes of spiritual 
comforts — Desire of sufferings — One ought not to 
make himself his end. 

I. Ps. Ixxxiv. : Hoiu amiable are Thy taber- 
nacles, O Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth^ yea, 
even fainteth for the courts of the Lo?'d : my heart 
a?id my flesh crieth out for the living God. 

Here are my desires and my passion, O my 
God ; be Thou alone the object of them : let 
Him kiss me ivith the kiss of His mouth : for His 
love is better than wine (Cant. i.). This is that 
refined pleasure to which Thou invitest us, and 
to which Thy pure, Thy sacred and Divine love 
attracts us : For in Thy presence there is fulness 
of Joy, and at Thy right ha?id are pleasures 
for ever?nore (Ps. xvi. ii). O chaste delight, 
which the soul tastes with Thee ! How doth 
it make us loath those to which flesh and blood 
incite us ! These I desire to renounce for ever : 
^33 



234 



TIic Laiv of Love 



Thou, O my God. shalt be all my delight ; and 
since Thou honourest me with the favour of 
calling me to abide in Thy house, in Thy 
temple where Thou really dwellest {for ye are 
the tej?iple of God. saith St. Paul, i Cor. iii.), in 
order to praise Thee there, and to adore Thee 
continually, I desire to trifle no more, nor lose 
my time in hunting after my pleasures and 
satisfactions anywhere else. It is in my heart, 
which is Thy temple, that I desire to dwell and 
praise Thee continually : for there it is that 
Thou manifestest Thyself, and makest Thyself 
to be felt in a manner as delicious and admirable 
as it is incomprehensible. 

2. But, Lord, though Thou art pleased to 
honour me thus frequently with the delightful 
sense of Thy grace, which infinitely surpasseth 
all carnal pleasures, from which Thou weanest 
me and makest me to loath them by giving me 
a far more excellent and exquisite taste, that I 
may be capable of relishing spiritual and Divine 
things ; yet, O Lord, I cannot be contented 
nor satisfied but with Thyself Therefore I 
beseech Thee to correct all the subtile, selfish 
attachments to the pleasures which these de- 
licious sensations produce in me, that I may 
cleave to Thee only, that so I may bear the 



Friday 2y-^ 

privation of them when Thou art pleased to 
suspend them, in order to make me partake of 
the bitter cup which Thou hast drunk in large 
draughts. my Saviour, how do I love to 
sufrer with Thee, when Thou art pleased to 
make me partaker in any small degree of Thy 
passion and suftering for me, as on this day. 
O how this thought disengages me from all 
sensual pleasures, that mine may be to adore 
Thee at the feet of Thy cross. Grant me the 
grace to learn at Thy feet how much it hath 
cost Thee to repair the aftront done to Thy 
sacred ^^lajesty by my fall: how much bitterness 
hath been occasioned to Thee by my diverting 
my love and my affections from Thee, Who 
alone art their rightful object, and bestowing 
them on vain creatures more contemptible than 
myself, whom I have idolized in placing my 
delight in them. 

3. Animated with a just zeal against myself, 
for the outrage I have done Thee by my in- 
fidelities, let me have at heart the sole interests 
of Thy glory, and the vengeance which it is 
very just Thou shouldst take of all my usurpa- 
tions. O my Lord and my God, teach me how 
heinous they are, and how I have robbed Thee 
of Thy glory, which appertains to Thee alone. 



236 The Law of Love 

Lord, I am blind on this point, as I am in 
every other thing. Enhghten mine eyes, that I 
may see the heinous injustice I am guilty of in 
proposing myself as my end in everything I do. 
Teach me hereafter to desist from this piece of 
injustice, and never to have any other end or 
object but Thee alone, O my God, in all my 
conduct; since thus all honour and all glory 
shall be rendered unto Thee, as it ought ; and 
the command of loving Thee with all our 
heart, soul, strength, and thought shall have its 
accompHshment. 



SATURDAY 



On reading the sixth chapter of St. John — The flesh and 
blood of Jesus Christ is the food of the faithful soul — 
God must excite the hunger, and thirst, and create the 
satisfaction that results therefrom — The words of God 
are incomprehensible to human reason — Their true 
sense is given in reality by the Spirit of God. 

I. Mv soul thirsteth for God ^ for the living God: 
when shall I come and appear before God? 
(Ps. xlii. 2). Do but open thy mouthy and I 
will fill it (Ps, Ixxxi. 2). O my most ador- 
able Saviour, Thou that hast said, / am the 
Bread of Life^ Thou seest how my poor soul 
hungereth and thirsteth after Thee, Who art its 
true and only Food. And if I do not feel this 
blessed hunger and thirst, alas ! I have recourse 
to Thee, as unto Him alone that can give it me, 
and also make me to be filled and refreshed 
therewith. I present myself therefore before 
Thee, and prostrate myself at Thy feet, that 
Thou mayest operate both the one and the 
237 



238 



TJie Law of Love 



other; that Thou mayest excite in me that 
hunger and thirst which Thou desirest I should 
have after Thee ; and that Thou mayest fill me 
and quench my thirst with Thyself. Hast not 
Thou told us, O my Saviour, that Thy flesh is 
meat indeed^ and Thy blood is driiik iiideed^ 
(John vi.). Yea, Lord; and though my reason 
and my understanding comprehend nothing in 
this mystery, which is most spiritual, even spirit 
and life^ yet it is no less true. It must needs 
be, that all the hunger and thirst of our souls do 
centre in desiring to be nourished with this 
celestial and Divine food, since it is by it that 
we are changed from earthly and sensual man 
into Divine, spiritual, and celestial men. Our 
desires are the mouth of our soul : when we 
open them towards Thee, Thou feedest and 
fillest them with Thyself ; and it is this meat 
that giveth us eternal life here below, for it is 
the bread of life. He that eateth Me^ shall live 
by Me, This Divine food changeth, and trans- 
formeth us into Thee, O Lord ; / live no more^ 
but Christ liveth in nie ; for in truth we change 
our being and life ; we become by this spiritual 
eatings new creatures^ created after God in right- 
eousness and true holiness: if any man is in 
Christy he is a ?iezv creature (2 Cor. v. 17). 



Saturday 



2. My Lord, grant I may adore this Divine 
mystery; grant I may believe Thy words, 
though my shallow reason does not comprehend 
them ; that I may put myself in a condition to 
feel and experience the effects of them, and that 
by a child-like submission unto Thee. Grant 
that in a profound humility I may suffer all the 
powers of my soul to be captivated under Thy 
obedience, humbly waiting till my own experi- 
ence teach me, and unveil the true sense of Thy 
words, which, by conveying Thy spirit and Thy 
life into me, will make themselves to be under- 
stood, according to the true meaning which 
Thou Thyself giveth them by the same Spirit ; 
for if I am deprived of this Holy Spirit, the letter 
killeth ine^ but // is the Spirit that quickeneth 
(2 Cor. hi. 6). Yes, my Saviour, Thy mysteries 
are incomprehensible to the human spirit. O 
grant me the grace to bring mine into sub- 
jection; for it is nothing but ignorance and 
error; and do Thou Thyself explain the sense 
which Thou designest to give Thy words, pene- 
trating my heart thereby, and imprinting it in 
my understanding. Then shall they become all 
spirit and life within me ; they shall illuminate 
and enlighten me, and inflame my heart with 
Thy love. Instead of disputing and commenting 



240 



The Law of Love 



upon this heavenly food, I shall beUeve, lay 
hold of it, and suffer myself to be nourished 
and made healthy thereby. Filled with joy and 
admiration, I shall say : My soul is satisfied as 
it cvere with marroiv aiid fatness (Ps. Ixiii. 6), 
and my cup overflows (Ps. xxiii.). I shall bless 
the Lord in the sense which the experience of 
this Divine fulness shall give me. 



THE END 



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